GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Meet the father of one thousand kids

domingo, 25 de noviembre de 2018

BioEdge: Meet the father of one thousand kids

BioEdge: Meet the father of one thousand kids

Bioedge

Meet the father of one thousand kids

by Michael Cook | 24 Nov 2018 |

'Louis' with a daughter, Joyce Curiere. Photo: Judith Jockel for the Guardian

Another adventure in the reproductive revolution. Last month we reported that a Dutch man may have fathered 1000 children by donating at three sperm banks over many years. The Guardian has helpfully tracked down this remarkable gentleman – who modestly estimates that the number is much smaller, around 200 -- to find out what makes him tick.

It turns out that Louis, now 68, deliberately set out to create as many children as he could in the hope that someday, somehow, some or one of them would contact him. “I had started to think, ‘Who will remember me when I’m gone? Who will talk about me? Who will be my heir?’” he says. “I think our biggest fear in life is not to die, but to be forgotten.”

"Louis" is a pseudonym. Half of his portrait appears in a portrait of him with a daughter in The Guardian’s feature. His father was from Suriname and had African ancestry but was estranged from his Dutch mother. After spending his early years there, Louis moved back to the Netherlands. He dropped out of university, worked at a bank, and failed in a number of relationships. He felt that he must be a bit autistic because he found it hard to connect with people.

Then he made his plan. From 1982, for 20 years, he donated sperm three times a week to three clinics. One of them lied outrageously about his qualifications. “It said I was university-educated, that I was a boss at a bank and that I had no interest in being contacted by future children,” he says. His donations ceased in 2002, when he was in his 50s. It was time to wait.

“If I had 10 children this way, there would be a very slim chance of success,” he told The Guardian. “But what if I had 100… or even more?”

In 2011, the plan began to bear fruit. Anonymous sperm donor twins appeared on television, pleading for their father to step forward. Cautiously, Louis obliged. Their initial meeting with his children was intense, but fulfilling.

Since then, others have contacted him after searching for genetic relatives through internet services. Up to now Louis has met 47 of the 57 children to whom he has been matched. One of them has made him his legal father. Others refuse to meet him again.

Does he have any ethical concerns? What about accidental incest in a small country like the Netherlands? “There are bigger threats in this world,” he tells The Guardian. His main concern is leaving the world with a legacy. He believes that his progeny must number about 200; a foundation which unites sperm donor children believes it could be as many as 1000. “The pharaohs built pyramids,” he says. “These children are my pyramids.”

Sunday, November 25, 2018

With people as wise as former US Vice-President Joe Biden asserting that transgender equality is the “civil rights issue of our time”, it’s no surprise that the world’s leading science journal agrees. In a scathing editorial late last month Nature argued that the Trump Administration’s “proposal for defining gender has no basis in science”.

There is no doubt that many bioethicists would agree with Mr Biden. In fact, a psychotherapist raised a storm in the British media this week with his interpretation of the crisis. It’s just that he took a view 180 degrees opposed to Nature. “In 20 years’ time, I believe we will look back on this folly as one of the darkest periods in the history of modern medicine,” wrote Bob Withers.

Despite trans Twitterstorms twisting and weaving their way across the bioethical landscape, it seems that the science and ethics of transgender issues is far from settled. It’s worthwhile listening to both sides of the debate.