Autistic children linked to same sperm donor

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http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditio ... index.html

Interesting Article I found on CNN.com

I caint imagine not being autistic. Yea, it'd be nice to understand the world of NTs, but honestly, if you take autism out of the world, you take a lot of potentionally amazing people out. Who knows, that kid could be the next Einstien.

Honestly, these pick-your-kid types piss me off. Kids are a wonderful gift, no matter what package they come wrapped in.

Am I scared of having an autistic child? Hell yea! But it doesn't mean I wouldn't love that child. I don't fear for him/her, I fear for those poor NTs who know nothing of wearing your heart on your sleeve and being able to look at the world as a beautiful place. Nearly every NT I know has lost that ability.

Why did they take the guy's samples out? One of his sons is practically a prodigy! If anything, they should be putting his sperm samples up as priority.

The article is kind of vague, nor does it explore the depth of the 'autism' of the other kids by such a donor, is it severe autism, is it hfa, aspergers? etc? The kid in the article sounds pretty high functioning for an autistic, I wish news organizations would at least give us what level they are functioning at.

I think one of the dangers of the autistic spectrum labeling is it can be abused.

It seems to me they could have simply noted the percentage of children conceived with the sperm that are showing signs of autism, and at what level. Allow parents to judge for themselves what risks they wish to take.

It was really interesting to hear the mom's comments on all of this, the "what if you had known?" question. She choose this child, this donor, but isn't willing to say she wishes she had known, and doesn't know what she would have done, and she loves her child just the way he is. And none of the families are trying to sue anyone.

I liked this article thanks for posting it. I first thought about this whole issue recently upon seeing an episode of Oprah where they showed how one young adult and his mother made a website, www.donorsiblingregistry.com, where all the offspring from sperm donors could trace their origins. The doctor/donor on the show actually struck me as somewhat Aspergers to be honest. And it raises a whole moral thing, about parental obligation - is it genetic? - some of the fathers refuse contact with offspring seeing no inherent connection - others consider themselves 'dad'. What do these kids have the right to expect?

It also showed a very fascinating and touching reunion between siblings who found eachother (even though the dad did not want to be found). http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200 ... 0208.jhtml

It’s really interesting from a speculative standpoint because this is an issue where there are so many issues to consider, social, moral, legal, biological…

Hehehe... Yes I read this.
As far I'm concerned, the mom got just what she asked for. A kid with the potential for genius.
Too bad she can't realize that such genius comes with a trade-off.