https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12267795
Danielle Rizzo's son is screaming. He is planted in the middle of the lobby of his elementary school, clinging to rainbow-coloured blocks as she gently explains that she is here - off schedule, in the middle of the day - to take him to a doctor's appointment. But the first-grader is not listening.
"Happy Meal," he repeats over and over again. "Happy Meal!"
His little brother, who is also going to the appointment, is nearby, not moving. Rizzo is relieved that the two of them are not melting down at the same time, which happens all too often, and firmly guides them out the door.
Rizzo's children, ages 7 and 6, were at the center of one of the most ethically complex legal cases in the modern-day fertility industry. Three years ago, while researching treatment options for her sons, Rizzo says she made an extraordinary discovery: The boys are part of an autism cluster involving at least a dozen children scattered across the United States, Canada and Europe, all conceived with sperm from the same donor. Many of the children have secondary diagnoses of ADHD, dyslexia, mood disorders, epilepsy and other developmental and learning disabilities.
The phenomenon is believed to be unprecedented and has attracted the attention of some of the world's foremost experts in the genetics of autism, who have been gathering blood and spit samples from the families.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by black6host on Tuesday September 17 2019, @02:08AM (5 children)
First I was going to say that Hey! It's not vaccines! Reality kicked me in the face and reminded me that for sure, a vaccine must have screwed up donor H898. : (
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @02:34AM
So that is APK's origin story! He's donor H898! A poet and a scholar wrecked by vaccination.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @03:24AM (3 children)
No, something the storage media for the sperm is also present in vaccines.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:13AM (1 child)
If you are unable to write correct English, shut the fuck up.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:29AM
Trump isn't maternal enough for you.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday September 18 2019, @03:11AM
Sperm are fragile. Storage media is basically egg yolk and milk. Anything the least bit toxic kills or disables sperm.
Also, if it were "something in the media" then every donor should produce similar numbers of defective offspring.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @02:09AM
The one who used his own sperm
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/08/28/048236 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Tuesday September 17 2019, @03:24AM (11 children)
I feel bad for the mother in the article, but it does sound like there was no way of knowing that the donor carried an 'autism gene', given that none has been conclusively identified. From the sound of things, the donor doesn't demonstrate Autistic behaviour themselves.
What's interesting is that this might help to progress research into a possible genetic predisposition. I don't know enough about Gene Therapy - would this potentially lead to a 'cure' for those cases linked to a specific set of genes?
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday September 17 2019, @03:41AM (3 children)
Ummm... (I'll let aside "the donor doesn't... themselves" or "the behaviour themselves" or "the donor and the behaviour themselves doesn't demonstrate"... fuck, I'm lost... large greene)... I'm reading in TFA:
Which means: even if it doesn't demonstrated them now, there were signs but nobody bothered to check.
What I find interesting is the case may push the things closer to line-in-the-sand separating us from Gattaca.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Tuesday September 17 2019, @06:25AM (1 child)
You're right. That did raise my eyebrows a little, but my goldfish-brain forgot that as it didn't pattern-match for Autism. It's quite possibly true that the donor's "learning and emotional disabilities" were in fact undiagnosed Autism. Could this be the new Typhoid Mary?
As to Gattaca - all of nature basically screens their mating partners (whether it's the dominant male in a pack, the bird whose dance is the most elaborate, the spider who managed to avoid the female's fangs to get in position etc). Humans do it too where they can observe desirable/undesirable traits, and it would be naïve to think that we would not avail ourselves of further information (I know I'd want to know predisposition to Autism if I were a female shopping at a sperm bank or a male looking for a donor egg). The society we build around that is another matter entirely, but we're certainly doing better now than we did 50 years ago when we routinely locked away those that were 'different'.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 17 2019, @12:36PM
Or it may merely mean that some variants of autism and AHDH have the same causes. The donor and children may all be correctly diagnosed.
As to Gattaca, it's a better genetic dystopia than Idiocracy although you have to wonder if they were sliding towards Idiocracy - "let's launch our most genetically perfect people into high radiation space" or "the dude has six fingers on each hand, that means he can play the piano".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:11PM
It does sound as if the sperm bank was not selective enough.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:09AM (3 children)
I feel very badly for her too. Dovetails with some other recent stories about sperm donors, ethics of picking traits, etc. I'm on the side of the argument that women pick the traits in traditional dating; and regardless, if she picked one thing but was given another, it sounds like contract violation.
I also agree and find it interesting, and I hope the data from this study can enhance gene research, gene therapies, etc., and I hope such research can be some solace to her, and that maybe someday Autism / ADHD / Asperger's, etc., can be solved.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:44AM
I think they might locate one of the causes, but I don't think there can be an 'instant cure'. Even if it has a genetic basis I think it is a developmental problem in the brain and any cure would be altering someone into being a new individual.
If you do it slowly and can watch the change most people would be ok with that, people change over time anyway, but even so the non-autistic result would be a different identity.
If course it is not binary. The difference in identity would be proportional to the original problem. Cure mild ADHD and everybody will say it's the same person. Cure really severe autism and you have pretty much created a new person.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:02AM
Probably the donor matched up exactly what the recipients asked for, in terms of traits known at the time.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 17 2019, @10:30AM
She's been sold a dud; in any other business, there would be comeback.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:50AM (1 child)
Of course, there is NOW, and at least one company is continuing to offer his donations.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday September 17 2019, @06:27AM
Yes, and those guys should be taken to the cleaners if/when future kids turn up with Autism too
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday September 17 2019, @06:41PM
My family actually has a history of autism, discovered by relatives doing genealogy research. Some of my cousins have autistic children (about 1 in 3 in the generation born between 2001-2011 I think it was). It appears to surface again every 3 generations or so.
The trick is, in the old records, it's never called that. That term didn't come into wide use until fairly recently, and the family records appear to be a generation behind on medical technology. They use some terms like "particularly loved by god" or "possessed a close connection with the angels" (for the less independent ones) and "savant" or "peculiarly clever" (for more independent ones). Some can't be confirmed of course, particularly older ones, but there's enough evidence to be reasonably sure.
There's a little evidence a few of the more recent members may have been diagnosed with some forms of schizophrenia, which was often conflated with autism, but the family records never use medical terms, and always have a heavy positive spin, so it's a little vague.
Of course the majority of my family rejected the explanation autism might run in the family and insist it's a new issue caused by something external.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:18AM (5 children)
...must be sterilized, for the good of the human race.
No, I don't care about your politically correct knee-jerk response.
Your parents should have been sterilized too.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:34AM
people who propose eugenics should be killed.
no, i don't care about your politically correct knee-jerk response condemning the death penalty.
you should be killed.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:01AM
Who's going to pay for it? What are you doing to do when some of them resist the procedure?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by deimios on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:07AM (2 children)
Ok let's run with the theme.
1. Where do you draw the line for "inferior"?
2. How adequate are the measurements for determining said inferiority?
3. How quickly do you propose to reach a 100% result?
4. What economical effect will that have?
5. How do you propose to get to a global consensus to enforce said policy?
6. How can you secure the enforcement of said policy so that it applies to everyone, including the wealthy, powerful and even those who are supposed to enforce the policy?
7. Have you considered the alternatives like gene editing? What about points 1-6 for the alternatives?
Just off the top of my head.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Tuesday September 17 2019, @06:39AM
In the absence of our local RDT, let me attempt to answer on his behalf:
1. Where do you draw the line for "inferior"?
Acceptable categories are: Net worth of $100m or more; Stable Genius, Healthy orange complexion; Voted for me in 2016. All others are inferior.
2. How adequate are the measurements for determining said inferiority?
Self-evident by how easily those inferior people were brainwashed by the corrupt media!
3. How quickly do you propose to reach a 100% result?
Well, let me tell you. Nobody's ever been able to do this before. But we're doing to have the best process - the best. And it will be done so, so quickly. It'll be the most successful process - the best. Ideally, we need to have this done before the start of my third term
4. What economical effect will that have?
We'll be able to eliminate all of that wasteful spending on welfare cheats, socialists, illegals and readers of the failing New York Times. Think of the economic benefits that the 1% will be able to make from that once we cut their tax rate in half!
5. How do you propose to get to a global consensus to enforce said policy?
Global consensus? I'm not sure I understand your question. This is what will catapult the US above all of those other shithole countries. MAGA!
6. How can you secure the enforcement of said policy so that it applies to everyone, including the wealthy, powerful and even those who are supposed to enforce the policy?
Pay attention. Wealthy people are exempt - see Question 1
7. Have you considered the alternatives like gene editing? What about points 1-6 for the alternatives?
It didn't poll well with the Evangelicals
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @04:40PM
1: Everything outside of 32°N to 33°N
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @07:35AM (1 child)
This is another clear indication that autism can be hereditary.
I wish I knew this and knew that I was autistic myself before becoming a father. It is heart-wrenching to see your children go through many of the same horrors you experienced at childhood. I sincerely feel for the people affected by this.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @03:26PM
Try not to feel TOO bad.
We all are a set of good and less-good genes.
You might be surprised how common certain genetic issues are in the human population. The number is so high, it makes me wonder if humans aren't a bit inbred as a species.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @12:23PM
aaaaaaaamazing!
the liberated sperm made it and travelled the world. in a jet engine powered, pressurized cabin containing high tech flying contraption.
the world is mad and brilliant at the same time!
now back to youtube videos about the magic of ... makeup!