Two Things Egg Freezing Might Mean?

One of my favorite blogs is Olivia’s View.   There’s a new post there today that has set me thinking.   It’s very brief but it adds in to other things.

What’s noted there is that women over the age of 44 are very likely to have trouble achieving a full term pregnancy with their own 44-year-old eggs.   I suppose this isn’t news in a general way, but the detailed findings lend stronger support to something we probably knew anyway.

So what will this mean?   Long term it seems to me this is good news for the burgeoning business of egg preservation.   Young women (say in their early 20s) will be all the more eager to freeze their eggs.   The more clear it becomes that you will lose fertility as you age, the more appealing preserving your youthful fertility will be.

But this is only useful

Third Party Gametes and Unintentional Incest

In the course of the public debates about use of third-party gametes (particularly what are commonly called “sperm donors”) those opposed often raise the specter of “accidental incest.”   (One of the more well-known instances is here, and it’s particularly notable for three reasons:  It got a ton of press, it really has nothing to do with use of third-party gametes as it’s about adopted-out siblings, and it is quite possible that it never happened.)

In any event, the idea is that if people do not know they are genetically related then siblings (like the possibly mythical twins who were adopted out into different families) might unwittingly meet, fall in love and have children.   I’ve read, in fact, that the affinity arising from the genetic similarity might even make it more likely that siblings would feel attracted to each other, though I have no idea if this is the case.

I don’t mean to dismiss this risk out of hand. It’s obviously possible.  The twins story may not be true, but it could be true.   And the problem is clearly exacerbated when you have men providing sperm to create scores of offspring.   Indeed, concerns about unintentional incest are most often raised precisely in this context.    And for what it is worth, I am fine with limiting the number of children who can be conceived with any particular providers sperm (or eggs, but that’s less an issue.)

Now what brings this all up right now is this report from the Hay Festival.   Professor Susan Golombok appeared there.  She’s a woman whose work I really admire.  And, according to press reports, she expressed some concern about the risks of accidental incest. 

And Then There is Marriage and Parenthood In NY

A couple of posts back I wrote about marriage and parenthood and how they are linked together in Oregon.    Bottom line (for present purposes) is this:  When a married couple in OR uses ART, the spouse of the woman who gives birth is a legal parent, whether that spouse is male or female.   The statute itself only speaks of “husband” a few years back the OR Supreme Court reasoned that you couldn’t treat couples using ART differently because of their sex.   There’s no good reason for doing so.

Now comes a new case from NY reaching a different result.  A married lesbian claiming parental status by virtue of her marriage to the woman who gave birth is told “no,” although I believe a man in her position would have been told yes. 

Anonymity and Secrecy, Part II

Sometimes it seems so difficult to make progress in thinking through these issues.  This is one of those times.  Yesterday I began consideration of anonymity and secrecy in the use of third-party gametes.   Really it is just about secrecy–haven’t gotten to anonymity yet.  I had it in mind that today I would move on.  But the more I think about even the little bit I wrote, the more I find there is more to consider.

Though I think it is worth reading the last post (and yes, I’m biased here), I can put it in a nutshell:  I think concealing the fact that you used third-party gametes from the child who was conceived with those gametes is a bad idea.   (And just to be clear, I do not take the same position vis-a-vis the world in general.  I don’t think you have any obligation to announce your use of third-party gametes generally.)

But what follows from that statement?   Most obviously, if I were the person deciding, I’d be honest with the child and tell them about their origins.   Probably no one objects to that.   Many would agree that it falls within my discretion to tell.      

Anonymity and Secrecy, Part I

I spent this past weekend at a wonderful conference in Boston.   Lots of very smart people thinking about ART and many things related to ART.   One of the recurrent topics was the importance of anonymity those who provide gametes for third-party reproduction.    (I know that this seems a very clunky way to put it–why not just say “sperm donors” and be done with it?   There are reasons, as regular readers (of my now irregular blog) will know.   For one thing, there’s the word “donor”–which is perhaps not the best word to use for people who are paid.  For another, there are overlapping issues for egg providers, and it may be that the overlapping issues are converging.    I cannot discuss all this here, but suffice it to say that I choose the clunky language deliberately.)

Anyway, one of the things that interested me was that many different questions were raised and there seemed to be some real disagreement in how to think about these questions.   Since I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about anonymity in the past, I thought it might be time to revisit (and maybe reorganize?) my own thoughts on the subject.   This could take a couple of posts, but I think it’s worth it.

So first off, there’s what one even means by anonymity.   Anonymity is related to secret-keeping.   An anonymous donor (in the philanthropic context) is one whose identity is kept secret.   But when you think about third-party reproduction, you can think of different levels of secret-keeping. 

Three Parents and A Child’s Need to Know Genetic Heritage

This is really just a tiny little post, because I’ve this question kicking around in my mind.  I read this post the other day that’s all about the mDNA and three-parent reproduction or whatever we are going to call it.

I’ve been persuaded over time that children should be able to have access to information about their genetic lineage if they want.   And I would include in that contact information for the person who provided gametes.   (I am well aware that we might call that person different things–genetic parent, parent, donor, whatever.  I’m skipping that point right now.)

I reach this conclusion because it seems apparent that to some people it is extremely important information, intertwined with their sense of identity.    I do not really understand why–I might speculate that this is socially constructed. But perhaps it doesn’t matter why because for people who have this

Father Of Multitudes?: Thai Surrogacy and More

There’s a story from a few weeks ago that I’ve been thinking about.   A young Japanese man, Mitsutoki Shigeta, hired a series of Thai surrogates.  He became a genetic father to at least 16 children this way, spending something like $500,000.   While is motives remain obscure, he apparently wanted to continue at something like this pace for as long as he could, presumably creating hundreds of children.

Now the obvious thing to talk about here–and one that has gotten a lot of attention–is what this says about the Thai surrogacy industry or surrogacy more generally.   Surely there is a lot to think about.   But I am not going to add to the welter of comments on that topic you can already find.

I want to think about this more broadly.  

Australian Birth Certificates And What They Mean

I approach the topic of birth certificates with some trepidation, because it seems to be a particularly controversial topic.   I approach Australian law with great trepidation, as I have no real understanding of Australian law.  I rely on what others say, and that is always risky.   So you can just imagine the degree of trepidation with which I approach the topic of Australian birth certificates.  But nonetheless, here I am.

Some background first:  One problem with talking about birth certificates is reaching an agreement about what they are/what they do.  I’ve written about this a number of times.   (See above trepidation.)

A number of things make the topic more complicated than it might at first seem.  For one thing, I assume every country (and many states) have their own ways of doing things. 

University of Utah Balances Harms—Did They Get It Right?

A few months ago I wrote about Thomas Lippert.   Lippert worked for a fertility clinic in Utah in the early 1990s and apparently substituted his own sperm for that of intended genetic fathers on at least one occasion.    This came to light recently as genetic testing revealed that a 21-year-old was the genetic child of Lippert and not, as was thought, her social/psychological (and legal) father.

Because this happened quite a while back and because the clinic closed in 1997, details of exactly how this happened are scarce.  It is, however, clear that Lippert was anything but a model citizen.  (He died in 1999.)

Once the story came to light, the University of Utah (the clinic had some affiliation there) did an investigation.  And now that is complete.   So the next chapter in this story is the University’s response.   While it is interesting, it is not entirely satisfactory.  

New Case on Genetic and Gestational Lesbian Mothers in the UK

First off, thanks to Natalie Gamble and Bill Singer for pointing me towards this case.   It’s actually a nice complement to the Jason Patric case, which has been the focus of a lot of recent discussion here.

A lesbian couple in the UK wanted to have children.   One woman provided eggs.  (She’s the genetic mother.)  These were fertilized in vitro and the resulting embryos were transferred to the other woman’s uterus.   (She’s the gestational mother.)  The gestational mother gave birth to twins.

Both women cared for the children with the genetic mother assuming the role of stay-at-home mom.   As some point one of the earlier-created embryos was transferred to the uterus of the genetic mother and a third child was born.   (The third child is a full genetic sibling to the twins.)