What sperm banks could learn from Fox ’s ‘Almost Family’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ sequel ‘The Testaments’

This article was originally featured on the Genetic Literacy Project on October 1, 2019. This article, along with more information and additional links can be found at: https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2019/10/01/foxs-almost-family-vs-the-handmaidens-tale-sequel-the-testaments-different-takes-on-the-dangers-of-sperm-bank-donations/ .  ** I'm dreading the debut of the Fox TV series Almost Family on October 2. In it, Julia Bechley discovers that her dying dad, a famous fertility doctor, had made dozens of personal DNA donations that are now millennials, at least two of whom have unknowingly hooked up. Many of us in the donor-conceived (DC) community have already seen the series as the Australian show Sisters on Netflix. I hope the new incarnation changes the ending, which was the worst since the supposedly-dead Bobby Ewing appeared in the shower in the 1986 finale of the TV series Dallas and revealed that the entire season, in which he’d died, had been a dream.  The 2013 film Delivery Man preceded both versions of Dr. Bechley’s misadventures. In it, Vince Vaughan is the befuddled father of 533 twenty-somethings, thanks to long-ago sperm donations. A lot of them. The danger of unintentional inbreeding We hardly need fictional accounts of surprise insta-families. The situation is very real, thanks to a convergence of factors: poor regulation of assisted reproductive technologies over decades...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Genetics Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs