Child born from sperm donation traces father on Internet
PARIS (AFP) - A 15-year-old boy born from anonymously-donated sperm reportedly used an online DNA-testing service and the Internet to track down his genetic father, a feat which suggests that promises of donor secrecy are worthless.
According to the British weekly New Scientist, the teenager was able to rip through every veil of anonymity by using a DNA test, genealogical records and searches on the Internet, it says.
The boy, who was not named, started the hunt for his biological father by rubbing a swab along the inside of his cheek, putting it in a vial and sending it off to an online US DNA genealogy service, with a payment of 289 dollars (240 euros).
The service, designed to help people uncover their family tree, matched the boy's Y chromosome -- which passes from father to son, virtually unchanged -- against a databank of Y chromosomes from other men.
After nine months, he was contacted by two men whose Y chromosomes closely matched his own.
Neither men knew each other, but the similarity between their Y chromosomes suggested there was a 50-percent chance that all three had the same father, grandfather or great-grandfather.
In addition, both men had the same last name, although with different spellings.
Using this vital clue, the boy launched his Internet search.
Although his donor had been anonymous, the boy's mother had been told the man's date and place of birth and his college degree.
Using another online service, the boy purchased the names of everyone who had been born in the same place on the same day.
"Only one man had the surname he was looking for, and within 10 days he had made contact," New Scientist says.
The news will be unsettling to any man who donated sperm before the advent of the Internet and before the power of genetics was fully appreciated, the magazine says.
"With the explosion of information about genetic inheritance, any man who has donated sperm could potentially be found by his biological offspring.
"Absent and unknown fathers will also become easier to trace."
In some countries, sperm donors are required by law to allow their identity to be revealed to their children once their offspring reaches a certain age.
In others, though, including the United States, most sperm donors are still anonymous.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051102...m_051102193342
PARIS (AFP) - A 15-year-old boy born from anonymously-donated sperm reportedly used an online DNA-testing service and the Internet to track down his genetic father, a feat which suggests that promises of donor secrecy are worthless.
According to the British weekly New Scientist, the teenager was able to rip through every veil of anonymity by using a DNA test, genealogical records and searches on the Internet, it says.
The boy, who was not named, started the hunt for his biological father by rubbing a swab along the inside of his cheek, putting it in a vial and sending it off to an online US DNA genealogy service, with a payment of 289 dollars (240 euros).
The service, designed to help people uncover their family tree, matched the boy's Y chromosome -- which passes from father to son, virtually unchanged -- against a databank of Y chromosomes from other men.
After nine months, he was contacted by two men whose Y chromosomes closely matched his own.
Neither men knew each other, but the similarity between their Y chromosomes suggested there was a 50-percent chance that all three had the same father, grandfather or great-grandfather.
In addition, both men had the same last name, although with different spellings.
Using this vital clue, the boy launched his Internet search.
Although his donor had been anonymous, the boy's mother had been told the man's date and place of birth and his college degree.
Using another online service, the boy purchased the names of everyone who had been born in the same place on the same day.
"Only one man had the surname he was looking for, and within 10 days he had made contact," New Scientist says.
The news will be unsettling to any man who donated sperm before the advent of the Internet and before the power of genetics was fully appreciated, the magazine says.
"With the explosion of information about genetic inheritance, any man who has donated sperm could potentially be found by his biological offspring.
"Absent and unknown fathers will also become easier to trace."
In some countries, sperm donors are required by law to allow their identity to be revealed to their children once their offspring reaches a certain age.
In others, though, including the United States, most sperm donors are still anonymous.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051102...m_051102193342
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