There are practical and ethical problems aplenty in this. One wonders too how the now 7 yr old child will cope on finding that his mothers would not have given him life if had they known what they know now.

<A lesbian couple sues sperm bank after discovering their Ph. D donor was actually a mentally ill criminal

Couple sues sperm after discovering donor's history

HE WAS good on paper: Eloquent, mature, healthy and smart to boot.

That’s why Angela Collins and Margaret Elizabeth Hanson say they chose Donor 9623 to be the biological father of their child.

Then last June, almost seven years after Collins gave birth to a son conceived with his sperm, they got a batch of emails from the sperm bank that unexpectedly — and perhaps mistakenly — included the donor’s name. That set them on a sleuthing mission that quickly revealed he is schizophrenic, dropped out of college and had been arrested for burglary, they said in a lawsuit filed March 31 in Atlanta.

On top of that, the photo of him they’d seen when deciding on a donor had been altered to remove a large mole on his cheek, the suit says.

Collins and Hanson said the Atlanta sperm bank promoted the donor’s sperm, saying it came from a man with an IQ of 160, an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and a master’s degree in artificial intelligence, who was pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience engineering [and no mole presumably].
http://tinyurl.com/mpmwssh

"Collins and Hanson say they have suffered emotional and financial damages and are suing for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of warranty, and unfair business practices."

Question is, will they be treating the son differently now that the couple know that his genes and future prospects are average and likely no better than their own.

Who is the victim here?

What a horrible situation!
I think they have every right to sue the sperm bank (too late to sue the actual sperm though...lol). Any company who deliberately lies about their product should expect trouble.

I wouldn't imagine they would treat the child any differently because they would have already bonded closely to him by this time.
Certainly they would be fearful for his future now though, because schizophrenia tends to run in families. What if the boy asks about his father?

I think any couple who found out this info about their sperm donor would be rightly very upset, but because it is a lesbian couple much more will be made about the situation in a place like America.

OTB,

Having read the article as well, you missed one extremely salient point. The donor was suffering from schizophrenia which is genetically inherited, incurable, and pretty much one of the nastiest diseases to inherit as the sufferers are prone to violence and wildly antisocial behaviour.

And while I doubt that the parents would reject the child, I would disagree that their child's prospects are average and no better than the parents, and conclude that the fertility clinic is guilty of serious fraud and should be made an example of.

G'day there ONTHEBEACH...

Practical and ethical issues aplenty, too right ! I'll cop a real kickin' for this, but I'm a big boy, I can handle it. Firstly, I don't believe two lesbians should be permitted to 'engineer' a baby. A child in this tough world needs a (female) mother and a (male) father. Secondly, this whole practice of 'ordering' a designer baby is reprehensible. A baby is a product of nature, not a bespoke suit ?

These fertility clinics or sperm banks should restrict their practice to assisting married heterosexual couples with having a child, should circumstances prevent that couple from conceiving in the more traditional ways.

I'll no doubt be considered utterly out of sync, with modern, (contemporary) standards that currently prevail within society ? Where all this neonate engineering now seems to pervade normal obstetric and gynaecological practice, and is now viewed as legitimate ? Perhaps there within medicine itself, lies the problem ? Too much 'filthy lucre' to be made, I wonder ?

While still working, almost up until I retired, It never ceased to amaze me the spiralling instances of shattered or damaged homes and families, that I've witnessed, destroyed by spontaneous family violence, ABH, manslaughter and even murder ? Most of which was as a consequence of the overindulgence of alcohol or intemperate use illicit drugs ? More often than not caused by our 'egalitarian' and 'over-sophisticated' society, choosing to cast out, just about every single moral and ethical criterion, we used to have in place !

Believe me when I say, I'm certainly no bible thumping God botherer, quite the contrary, but our society is rapidly disintegrating before our eyes. Our ravenous desire to shed all those previous (but important) 'old fashioned' standards and morals has seemingly led us down this perilous track, or should it be 'The Road to Perdition' ? The only question is...? What will destroy us first, this moral decay or the rapidly expanding Islamic groups like ISAL or ISIS ?

Wow, we sure have a very rosy future confronting us all eh ONTHEBEACH ?

Shadow Minister,

You are right to say that the business should be accountable and the alleged misrepresentation is serious.

However, what manner of person/s shop for a designer baby, particularly from a stud with that pedigree - superior intellect and social skills?

Also, it takes a special sort of stupid, encouraged by vanity and greed to order such DNA. On stupid, what were they thinking of going to an unregulated supplier with doubtless better promises for a cheaper investment. Due diligence should have been first priority, what blinded them to that?

The child is the victim. He was brought into this world by their decision. Presumably 50% of his genes are from one of the lesbians. I did not bother to check if one was the mother. However the child has inherited genetic risks and a possible lifetime of uncertainty and unhappiness. On top of that his mothers have shown that he was definitely not what they were hoping for and he doesn't have that bright career future they wanted (and for what?).

o sung wu,

I tend to agree with you. This couple quite deliberately went to another country, to the US to deal with an unregulated supplier. They are Canadian. Their reasoning is not given in the report, however it could have been a transaction that was not permissible under Canadian jurisdiction.

Now the seven year old child suffers. There likely consequences for the Canadian taxpayer. -Selfishness, ego-centrism, 'me-me-me' trumps obeying laws and considering consequences and community.

That business, lawyers and the women all deserve one another. Long may the suit run! Poor kid though, the names are public and for his lifetime he endure the obvious questions, from his insurers and possible employers too.

Frankly most people would not sue because the child would become the victim. -Few people would put themselves in that position in the first place. Sure, report to authorities, but make damned sure there is no chance the boy could ever be identified.

The best interests of the child? So easy to forget in modern times, apparently.

A small baby is brought into the world without any say whatsoever ? This tiny little baby is a living human being, not some 'plaything' for a group of people who wish to experiment with societie's values ?