Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408
Their Mothers Chose Donor Sperm. The Doctors Used Their Own.
Scores of people born through artificial insemination have learned from DNA tests that their biological fathers were the doctors who performed the procedure.
Growing up in Nacogdoches, Tex., Eve Wiley learned at age 16 that she had been conceived through artificial insemination with donor sperm.
Her mother, Margo Williams, now 65, had sought help from Dr. Kim McMorries, telling him that her husband was infertile. She asked the doctor to locate a sperm donor. He told Mrs. Williams that he had found one through a sperm bank in California.
Mrs. Williams gave birth to a daughter, Eve. Now 32, Ms. Wiley is a stay-at-home mother in Dallas. In 2017 and 2018, like tens of millions of Americans, she took consumer DNA tests.
The results? Her biological father was not a sperm donor in California, as she had been told — Dr. McMorries was. The news left Ms. Wiley reeling.
"You build your whole life on your genetic identity, and that's the foundation," Ms. Wiley said. "But when those bottom bricks have been removed or altered, it can be devastating."
Through his attorney and the staff at his office, Dr. McMorries declined to comment.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday August 28 2019, @06:09PM (10 children)
Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA [nytimes.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 28 2019, @07:59PM (9 children)
Ah, but Jeffery Epstein wasn't a doctor. So he may have had other motives for his actions. But a doctor would only be interested in not having to pay the third party contractor who was selected by the clients to provide the DNA.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @08:16PM
A doctor doesn't stop being a person after he gets his medical credentials.
All personal motives that apply to people apply to doctors too. You could even say a fertility doctor has a special interest in reproductive matters.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Wednesday August 28 2019, @11:14PM (6 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday August 28 2019, @11:36PM
It's just too damn compelling.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:01PM (4 children)
They keep getting caught, because they keep doing it.
I'm proposing that one of the reasons doctors do this is that they don't have to actually pay any money to the person the parents selected as the sperm donor.
I am jokingly also suggesting that this is the ONLY motive, which of course, it may not be. There may be other motives beyond not paying a donor.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 2) by dry on Friday August 30 2019, @04:58AM (3 children)
This happens in countries where no money is paid to sperm donors such as Canada.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:36PM (2 children)
So in Canada and other heathen countries these service workers do not get paid? But what about commerce and the allmighty dollar? What could be more important than the donor getting paid?
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 2) by dry on Wednesday September 04 2019, @03:29AM (1 child)
Ethics
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 04 2019, @01:18PM
In the US, Ethics has a market value. Sadly.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Friday August 30 2019, @12:41PM
Yeah, I'm not so sure either. Doctors often have pretty big egos. I'm quite involved with the medical world- starting 2 years ago my mother was ill, but passed away last December, now it's dad's turn, and I'm about to go to the hospital where he is. I interact a lot with many doctors. Of course, their professional persona might be quite different from their off-the-clock persona, but still, I think just to deal with all the "stuff" of medical school and then being a doctor, you have to be fairly tough, driven, and that comes from ego.
And to varying extents, doctors want to make the world better, healthier, less disease-prone, etc.
My point being, it's not a stretch to think that a doctor thinks his DNA is some of the best, and the world would be better off with a higher percentage of better DNA.
But that's just one possible reason.