robot_parade

Meh. Not that big a deal. The 'case' was only brought to light to further the position that sperm donor/IVF/adopted children should know who their real parents are. I disagree with this position, because it may discourage parents giving children up for adoption (instead of an abortion). The problem is just as easily solved with a hash function (sperm donor -> random identifier). The random identifier is given to any child conceived by the sperm donor, along with an (anonymized) medical history. That way, the child knows his medical history, and can identify siblings, but the donor remains anonymous.

Also, I seem to recall reading a few years ago that the problems with inbreeding tend to occur only after a few generations of inbreeding. So, such a couple could have kids without problems (except the 'ew' factor...). I'm too lazy to check the actual research, though, so I could be wrong about that.

Meh. Not that big a deal. The 'case' was only brought to light to further the position that sperm donor/IVF/adopted children should know who their real parents are. I disagree with this position, because it may discourage parents giving children up for adoption (instead of an abortion). The problem is just as easily solved with a hash function (sperm donor -> random identifier). The random identifier is given to any child conceived by the sperm donor, along with an (anonymized) medical history. That way, the child knows his medical history, and can identify siblings, but the donor remains anonymous.

Also, I seem to recall reading a few years ago that the problems with inbreeding tend to occur only after a few generations of inbreeding. So, such a couple could have kids without problems (except the 'ew' factor...). I'm too lazy to check the actual research, though, so I could be wrong about that.