“Irresponsible Reproduction”

January 21, 2009

Plans for a registry of egg and sperm donors in Australia has Dr. Joel Bernstein, a fertility specialist in Sydney, worried: “It could turn responsible reproduction into irresponsible reproduction,” he has said. (“Register ‘threatens’ fertility programs”) Dr. Bernstein is concerned about the possibility of “irresponsible reproduction”. Let’s consider what irresponsible reproduction might be. Does irresponsible reproduction include

1) one parent not knowing the name of the baby’s other parent?

2) lying to a child about his/her parentage?

3) not allowing your child to know his/her other parent?

4) not allowing your child to know what his/her genetic history includes?

5) not knowing how many siblings your child actually has?

6) not allowing your child to know how many siblings he/she has?

Interestingly, any or all of the above can apply to both one-night stands and assisted reproduction with donor gametes for which there is no donor registry.

Because donors through infertility services are usually screened medically, the risk of contracting a communicable disease should be significantly less than going the “pub” route Dr. Bernstein is concerned about. Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that, to Dr. Bernstein, irresponsible reproduction really just includes

7) the possibility of getting a communicable disease from your child’s other parent

8) not having your child’s other parent screened by assisted reproductive technology staff

For a variety of reasons, I do not advocate the “pub” route; on this, Dr. Bernstein and I agree. Yet neither do I advocate lack of responsibility for our actions. To willingly reproduce children without plan to be involved in their lives is to turn the process into an assembly line, and children into products. And it isn’t all that long “A.F.” (“After Ford”, from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World).