Autistic sperm donor lies about his health - Dutch News

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This is disturbing. It's almost like they're calling Asperger's a sexually transmitted disease.

There's something fishy about this article. It claims Autism is hereditary, but that's not entirely true. It is believed to be hereditary, but it is not proven to be hereditary. I'm kind of scared to comment on the article because I don't know exactly what I'm talking about, maybe someone here can comment with some real facts, or maybe even send a letter to the editor. I don't know. Thanks for letting me post.

reminds me of the attitude that Nazi Germany favored.

The point is he lied. He did not disclose.

He lied? Are they sure he has AS?

Okay, maybe a bad time to joke.

It would be very interesting to study this...from a scientific point of view. It would really put a muzzle on those that say it is caused by purely enviromental impacts, exspecially since they go into different homes, mothers, and enviroments...with only one common component...the father. That would be a great study. I am sure he is not the only autistic sperm donor, others may not know.

Very interesting

Wait a minute, how do they know that? The article talks like someone got access to his medical files ("was treated for depression in the past"). Isn't that illegal? I suppose a lawsuit could force medical records to be opened, but the article doesn't mention anything like that.

I wonder if people are making assumptions just because a number of autistic kids have resulted from this one donor. Maybe he has some autistic genes but doesn't know it. (And maybe the women involved have some, too, and didn't know it.)

Is not disclosing always tantamount to lying? We don't know what those women asked him and I could imagine this donor didn't think it's relevant.

I find it disgusting that they are treating autism as though it is some sort of disease and we are somehow defective, though I'm not really surprised.

Not disclosing is not always tantamount to lying. It's only lying if he was asked the question directly, do you have Asperger's/Autism.

Thanks for the discussion.

Not disclosing would still be considered by the sperm bank as lying by omission, since they generally don't like accepting sperm from donors that have any kind disorder that could hereditary, including autism.

Is what we have a disorder, or are we a different evolutionary offshot. We tend to do better with machines than neurotypicals for instance.

Most people with AS don't realize that they are more likely to have a kid that will never talk, respond to their name, and be in diapers all their life than they are to have a kid that will win a Nobel prize. AS people that have kids aren't actually breeding a race of savants. They land all over (and off of) the spectrum.

From what I've read, those on the spectrum where it can be traced back their family tree, tend to be on the high-functioning end of the spectrum. Also, a lot of traits they used to associate with Autism are not as associated with being on the spectrum as they once were.

It may be more likely that they are on the higher end of the spectrum, but that does not preclude a high probability of them having significant difficulties growing up and having a meaningful job and independent living as an adult. "High functioning" includes people that have a GED and live with their parents on disability all their life, having significant behavior problems and social skills that were never sufficiently resolved for them to go out on their own, and spending most of their free time (which is most of the time they are awake) playing world of warcraft, and downloading porn and pirated anime videos. People here tend to have an unrealistic idea of what high functioning, middle functioning (which is rarely used as a description in medical records), and low functioning. People here tend to think of middle functioning people when I say low functioning. If you have an autistic kid and you don't have to lock up all exits through doors and gates, everything potentially dangerous, fragile, or important that you don't want destroyed for no reason, your kid is fairly high functioning.

The offspring of the man with Asperger's are already showing signs of more severe cases of autism at a very young age. More will likely be discovered as time goes on as they come to an age where classic autism is more commonly diagnosed, and more with AS and PDD later. Anytime someone has a baby there is a certain risk of things not turning out as planned, and if you marry someone with Asperger's you voluntarily take extra risks but you have some idea what you are getting into. Unknowingly using DNA from someone with Asperger's for a test tube baby multiplies the risk of their child's life taking change for the worse, and it's a factor that could have been known and reduced.

I thought that it wasn't 100% proven that autism is hereditary. That it's very likely, but not proven for sure. I guess with this, it must be for sure?

Due to the fact we have hyper/hypo sensitivity in certain senses, one can argue that the functioning issue might be due to the fact they get neglected at key stages of development because they were unresponsive at first parents then don't notice when the kid is ready to interact and thus the kid suffers from neglect. Early intervention, can actually help a child on the spectrum learn to interact with NT peers, and if a lot of the problems are partially due to sensory overload, we could be seeing kids appearing or becoming less intelligent due to nurture and key development points being missed.

It is entirely possible that my being on the spectrum is due to the fact I managed to get my head stuck in my mom's rib cage, so doctors had to do a c-section and pull me out, so my being on the spectrum might not be due to genetics. I do know my ADHD can be traced to genetics though, considering we can trace it back to my grandfather and then my father.

Also I wasn't diagnosed as being on the spectrum till freshman year in college.