Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Gay genes and sperm donors

Scientists really should avoid putting their foot in things sometimes:
A Christchurch scientist [Dr. Frank Sin] has drawn the ire of the gay community and fellow scientists by saying infertile couples should be told if their potential sperm donor is gay because of evidence that homosexuality is genetic
I think this is frankly ridiculous. Yes, homosexuality probably does have some degree of genetic basis that is probably further conditioned by the environment an individual grows up in. The problem here, that I can see, is that it puts a gay donor into some sort of category like they have a disease. Further, this is only one step away from starting to specify what sort of characteristics children should have. Perhaps we should start having parents who are dark haired give 'informed consent', because maybe I don't want a kid with dark hair. Maybe we should extend it to donors who are of specific ethnicities as well, perhaps using the justification of higher rates of diabetes, certain cancers or heart disease as the reason.

This is just ridiculous and I certainly hope nobody takes this recommendation seriously.