Mail-order sperm and eugenics

[Rune]

Mail-order sperm

A new initiative that will enable women to order semen on-line is proving controversial as it circumvents danish laws against discriminatory gene selection

…

The company has begun to offer its services over the internet for its Danish customers. Would-be parents can select from the donor’s education level, career, ethnic origin, personality and various physical traits.

And because the transaction takes place over the internet, Danish laws that prohibit discrimination for sperm selection can be sidestepped, according to Politiken newspaper.

John Halse, child psychologist and former head of children’s advocacy organisation Børns Vilkår, believes the practice to be unethical and commented that ‘there’s no guarantee that little Kenneth will grow up to be a lawyer anyway.’

Mail-order sperm

• many people consider it suspect and immoral to have specific requirements on the donor sperm. Beyond the basics of ethnicity, it is illegal in Denmark. But people conceiving naturally are not having children by just any random mate. They too are selecting after a number of specific requirements, so why not let people who need sperm donors do the same?

[Der_Trihs]

@Rune

But people conceiving naturally are not having children by just any random mate. They too are selecting after a number of specific requirements, so why not let people who need sperm donors do the same?

I agree, why not ? In fact, as I see it the problem with the eugenics movement wasn’t nearly so much the desire for “better genes”, as it was the willingness to use coercion. People practice informal eugenics all the time without destructive consequences.

[panache45]

@Rune

[url=http://beeqube.com/article/mai]But people conceiving naturally are not having children by just any random mate. They too are selecting after a number of specific requirements, so why not let people who need sperm donors do the same?

Have you seen some of the people “conceiving naturally”? What are they selecting for, lack of intelligence and attractiveness?

[Rune]

@panache45

Have you seen some of the people “conceiving naturally”? What are they selecting for, lack of intelligence and attractiveness?

Why the scare quotes? Of course I have seen what some people are selecting mates for. We all have out preferences. As I recall it, I selected for big tits, a cute face and a nice singing voice. There might well be other traits that are more worthy.

[ParentalAdvisory]

nothing to see here.

[lavenderviolet]

It’s true that ‘there’s no guarantee that little Kenneth will grow up to be a lawyer anyway’ but there is definitely evidence that genetics influence intelligence, so I really don’t blame people for wanting to use a highly educated lawyer rather than a drug dealer for their kid’s sperm donor.

Anyway, if you want to ban all those other reasons, why IS ethnicity an acceptable basis for screening out sperm?
Is it because people can tolerate having stupid kids, but there would be a societal revolt if using anonymous sperm meant taking the risk of having a kid of the wrong ethnic traits/skin color?

[Minnie_Luna]

why IS ethnicity an acceptable basis for screening out sperm

My answer to this is so that the child (even though it was conceived by donor sperm) can look as much like the parents raising the child as possible. So if you chose not to tell your kid that Daddy doesn’t make good sperm and Mommy got knocked up by a donor, at least you could “match” your ethnic features based on what the donors ethnic features were. So if I am a Northern European woman and my mate was Mediterranean or Greek, we could find a suitable match based on ethnicity.