Sperm Donor Passed on Deadly Genetic Defect

In a case that highlights the importance of thorough sperm donor screening, it has been revealed that a donor from the early 1990’s passed on a genetic heart defect to nine of his 24 children.  According to a report published the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of those children died at the age of two and two others have developed symptoms and are determined to be at risk for sudden cardiac death.

The defect, Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, causes thickening of the heart and those afflicted often don’t exhibit any symptoms until adolescence.  However, the sperm donor, who has not been named, was unaware of his condition until after a child born from his sperm was diagnosed. One of the children found to have inherited his condition was born to the donor’s own wife. Continue reading »

Court Says No Child Support for Sperm Donor Kids

The mother of twins born via insemination with sperm from a donor bank has lost a bid to get child support from the anonymous sperm donor.

Anyone else saying “well, thank heavens?” Continue reading »

Michael Jackson News: Is Mark Lester the Baby Daddy?

Who’s the baby daddy? It’s a modern day mystery.  Gossip sites, gossip rags, and curious celebrity watchers have been making speculations about who is the biological father of Michael Jackson’s children.  Now Mark Lester, the actor known for his role in Oliver is going public and saying he believes he could be Paris’s dad.

Mark Lester was one of Michael Jackson’s best friends and is the godfather of all three of Michael’s children.  He told the UK’s News of the World that, Continue reading »

Ex Lesbian Facing Jail for Refusal to Let Ex See Daughter

A woman who left her wife to convert to evangelical Christianity is now facing jail . . . because she doesn’t think the Vermont courts have the right to force her to send a little girl conceived during their relationship to visit her ex-girlfriend. Continue reading »

72-Year-Old Wants to Be World’s Oldest Mother

She’s seventy-two, but Jenny Brown says she’s ready to be a mother. No matter how much it costs.

The British woman is about to undergo her seventh course of IVF in attempts to become pregnant at an age four years past the age of the current oldest new mom in the world (who just died at sixty-nine).

And that’s not all, she’s asking women to come forward Continue reading »

When “Where You Came From” Has an Extra Layer

The “where did I come from” question is one most parents sweat about. Explaining their origins to your children is one of those major “don’t screw this up” parenting moments, because if you get it wrong at worst you damage their self-esteem and at best? You’re getting mocked every time they reminisce about their childhoods with their friends as an adult.
It’s even more fraught for parents who have had some sort of help to bring their children into the world. This NYT article talks about how parents whose children were carried by surrogates address that issue with their kids. Continue reading »

Michael Jackson IS the Real Dad: Proof

The recurring theme in headlines in the last few days? They all claim Michael Jackson is not the dad of his kids.

But he was. And not just in a legal sense. Continue reading »

NY OKs Paying Women for Eggs for Research

Here’s something that throws that whole “I want to donate my body to science” saying out the window. New York State has said OK to paying women for their eggs . . . at least when they’ll be used for research.

It’s got bioethicists in a tizzy, and I’m still weighing out how I feel about it myself. On the one hand, women are paid for their eggs when it’s an “egg donation” so another person (be it a gay man or another woman) can make a baby. And it takes “work,” to donate eggs . . . regardless of who is getting them in the end, women have to take fertility drugs for a period of time plus daily hormone injections and actually go through the harvesting procedure (including going under anesthesia, which not everyone is comfortable with).

Just check out what it takes to do the Lupron injection: Continue reading »

No Cash for Kid Born from Dead Man’s Sperm

A mom who opted to have her husband’s sperm collected post-mortem won’t be getting any financial help from the government to raise her.

Gabriela Vernoff’s husband died in an accident in 1995, but she had his sperm extracted and frozen so she could have their baby four years later, in 1999. Now, ten years later, she’s been told she cannot collect Social Security benefits on the dead man’s child because she wasn’t a dependent during his life. Continue reading »

Octomom: I Screwed Up My Kids’ Lives

In a series of candid interviews with Radar online, Nadya Suleman let’s it all out, answering questions that those who have followed her story have asked themselves more than once.

For example, the sperm donor. What’s the deal with him?

Eight more babies after already having six? What the hell was she thinking?

Survival? What’s the plan?

Any regrets? Turns out, plenty! Continue reading »