Alana Stewart, is one of an estimated 30 - 60,000 children conceived each year in the United States through sperm donation, whose story will be featured in an upcoming documentary titled: "Anonymous Father's Day".
Alana knows the color of her father's eyes and hair, and that he has a college degree. She also knows his number ... 81 ... the number assigned to him by the sperm bank, where he deposited his sperm for sale. Number 81 would never be there to raise Alana, watch her take her first steps, see her off to her first day of school, worry over her first date or when she got her driver's license. Number 81 would not be in the audience when she stepped up to receive her college diploma. Number 81 would not walk her down the aisle if and when she ever got married. Number 81 would not be there for Father's Day. He was an "Anonymous Father".
Today, that estimated 30 - 60,000 children conceived through sperm donation have become adults, and are speaking out about what it is and has been like to be fathered by sperm donors. Alana states: "The biological parent’s absence is impossible to ignore because their presence is impossible to ignore - when you’re living in a version of their body and thinking in a version of their brain,” “I do very much feel separated from not only my father, but my entire paternal relatives."
In science's quest to help parents who want a child, the child itself has unfortunately been left out of the consideration. Does the parent's need to have a child, supersede the child's need to have a father and mother? This also applies to same-sex couples who are able to appropriate a child for themselves via this route. Do people have the right to overlook another, in seeking something for themselves? This is what has been happening today, with sperm and also egg donation, where human DNA is a commodity for sale in the marketplace. We once sold human beings in the slave markets in this country. Now we sell our own family's genetic history in the marketplace.
Case in point. My mother was a very creative and artistic person, now deceased, who passed her talents on down to myself, through the virtue of her DNA. She never had to teach me how to paint and draw, or write stories; it was already encoded in my genetic makeup, which I inherited along with her strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. Then I grew up to marry and have 5 children of my own; none of which seemed to inherit these artistic abilities, passed to me from my mother. A couple of my kids inherited my writing talents, but they could barely draw a stick person! Then, twenty-six years later, my daughter gave birth to a little girl, who just so happened to be born exactly on my mother's birthday!
Little Grace was born on my mother's birthday, with the same strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, and lo and behold, a few years later began to exhibit tremendous artistic abilities, along with amazing creative writing skills! Grace, now 12 years old, can paint, draw and create amazing sculptures from clay. She has begun making her own little videos, in what is known as "Claymations", little animated videos of her clay figures! It is amazing! She is looking forward to developing her talents, and her mother has already looked into a special high school which specializes in artistic children's needs, preparing them for college.
Now that I've bragged on my granddaughter enough, there is a point here to my boasting. What if Grace had simply been an egg or sperm sold at a reproductive center? All the genetic makeup which is the inheritance of our family, would be sold off with her, and she would never know from where she received these talents. A little strawberry blonde, blue eyed prodigy of our family would be out there somewhere unknown to us, and we to her. As I was a little sad to see that none of my own 5 children had not inherited the artistic abilities from myself and my mother, I would have never had the chance to see them realized in my little granddaughter. These precious gifts would have been sold off, like a mere commercial product. Though none of my 5 children had exhibited those artistic abilities, nevertheless they were still there in their DNA. That DNA, which one of my 5 children would later pass on to her own little girl ... Grace.
Though each and every one of us is a one of a kind unique soul, created by God, never to be repeated, yet we are each and every one of us made up of a "shared genetic pattern" passed down through the generations of our families. Our particular looks, character, mannerisms, gifts and talents, are all shared by each and every unique individual from each family.
Once again, taking a queue from my parent's generation ... they had another expression regarding a man's sperms. They would call this, "the family jewels". I used to wonder as a child what this odd expression meant. Now I know. Number 81 was not just selling a human seed to grow a baby for another. He was selling off Uncle Henry's scintillating wit, Aunt Martha's beautiful smile, Grandma Pearl's red hair and blue eyes ... Grandpa's musical talents ... or Grandma's artistic gift. All of these gifts and talents and everything that contributes to the whole of who we are, are held in the genetics of our father's sperm, and our mother's ovum. What gifts and talents did number 81 sell off?
Now, when Alana Stewart has her own daughter one day, God willing, what will her little girl inherit from number 81? And how will she know?
Alana knows the color of her father's eyes and hair, and that he has a college degree. She also knows his number ... 81 ... the number assigned to him by the sperm bank, where he deposited his sperm for sale. Number 81 would never be there to raise Alana, watch her take her first steps, see her off to her first day of school, worry over her first date or when she got her driver's license. Number 81 would not be in the audience when she stepped up to receive her college diploma. Number 81 would not walk her down the aisle if and when she ever got married. Number 81 would not be there for Father's Day. He was an "Anonymous Father".
Today, that estimated 30 - 60,000 children conceived through sperm donation have become adults, and are speaking out about what it is and has been like to be fathered by sperm donors. Alana states: "The biological parent’s absence is impossible to ignore because their presence is impossible to ignore - when you’re living in a version of their body and thinking in a version of their brain,” “I do very much feel separated from not only my father, but my entire paternal relatives."
In science's quest to help parents who want a child, the child itself has unfortunately been left out of the consideration. Does the parent's need to have a child, supersede the child's need to have a father and mother? This also applies to same-sex couples who are able to appropriate a child for themselves via this route. Do people have the right to overlook another, in seeking something for themselves? This is what has been happening today, with sperm and also egg donation, where human DNA is a commodity for sale in the marketplace. We once sold human beings in the slave markets in this country. Now we sell our own family's genetic history in the marketplace.
Case in point. My mother was a very creative and artistic person, now deceased, who passed her talents on down to myself, through the virtue of her DNA. She never had to teach me how to paint and draw, or write stories; it was already encoded in my genetic makeup, which I inherited along with her strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. Then I grew up to marry and have 5 children of my own; none of which seemed to inherit these artistic abilities, passed to me from my mother. A couple of my kids inherited my writing talents, but they could barely draw a stick person! Then, twenty-six years later, my daughter gave birth to a little girl, who just so happened to be born exactly on my mother's birthday!
Little Grace was born on my mother's birthday, with the same strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, and lo and behold, a few years later began to exhibit tremendous artistic abilities, along with amazing creative writing skills! Grace, now 12 years old, can paint, draw and create amazing sculptures from clay. She has begun making her own little videos, in what is known as "Claymations", little animated videos of her clay figures! It is amazing! She is looking forward to developing her talents, and her mother has already looked into a special high school which specializes in artistic children's needs, preparing them for college.
Now that I've bragged on my granddaughter enough, there is a point here to my boasting. What if Grace had simply been an egg or sperm sold at a reproductive center? All the genetic makeup which is the inheritance of our family, would be sold off with her, and she would never know from where she received these talents. A little strawberry blonde, blue eyed prodigy of our family would be out there somewhere unknown to us, and we to her. As I was a little sad to see that none of my own 5 children had not inherited the artistic abilities from myself and my mother, I would have never had the chance to see them realized in my little granddaughter. These precious gifts would have been sold off, like a mere commercial product. Though none of my 5 children had exhibited those artistic abilities, nevertheless they were still there in their DNA. That DNA, which one of my 5 children would later pass on to her own little girl ... Grace.
Though each and every one of us is a one of a kind unique soul, created by God, never to be repeated, yet we are each and every one of us made up of a "shared genetic pattern" passed down through the generations of our families. Our particular looks, character, mannerisms, gifts and talents, are all shared by each and every unique individual from each family.
Once again, taking a queue from my parent's generation ... they had another expression regarding a man's sperms. They would call this, "the family jewels". I used to wonder as a child what this odd expression meant. Now I know. Number 81 was not just selling a human seed to grow a baby for another. He was selling off Uncle Henry's scintillating wit, Aunt Martha's beautiful smile, Grandma Pearl's red hair and blue eyes ... Grandpa's musical talents ... or Grandma's artistic gift. All of these gifts and talents and everything that contributes to the whole of who we are, are held in the genetics of our father's sperm, and our mother's ovum. What gifts and talents did number 81 sell off?
Now, when Alana Stewart has her own daughter one day, God willing, what will her little girl inherit from number 81? And how will she know?
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