44 siblings and counting | Hacker News Reader

44 siblings and counting

washingtonpost.com

28 pointsFirebrand12 comments

A similar story published by a friend of mine recently - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/style/modern-love-how-i-m...

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertold_Wiesner - 600+ offspring!

(In third place on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_the_most_c... ...)

Hmm, apparently that's because his wife used the sperm he donated for artificial insemination - at the clinic they both ran. That feels problematic, if they didn't disclose where it was coming from.

That said, now that I'm thinking about this, I'm actually a little surprised that some famous individual hasn't decided to sell sperm at a premium with a contract releasing them from all liability. Given the obsession with fame a lot of the population seems to have, I'm sure there's a market. :/

That was a thing, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repository_for_Germinal_Choi...

"contract releasing them" I am no lawyer, but this can be a grey area. Because the child born of such an arrangement can not consent to the terms of the contract - and some judges will interpret the court's responsibility to ensure both biological parents are supporting the child to mean the sperm donor (a.k.a: the father) does have responsibilities to the child.

Keep in mind you'll have more than 18 years from the time of donation until the child reaches adulthood. there are going to be unexpected anomalies within some legal jurisdictions in that time. It's inevitable.

Consider this case from california [1]. now ask: would an famous individual selling sperm at a premium establish presumption of parenthood?

maybe, maybe not. but what is the likelyhood there'd be a lawsuit about it?

[1] https://blogs.findlaw.com/california_case_law/2017/08/sperm-...

> and some judges will interpret the court's responsibility to ensure both biological parents are supporting the child to mean the sperm donor (a.k.a: the father) does have responsibilities to the child.

Then how do anonymous sperm donations work? Is it purely the anonymity that allows it? I would think a court could easily just order a sperm bank to openit's records to get child support then.

> Consider this case from california [1]. now ask: would an famous individual selling sperm at a premium establish presumption of parenthood?

That seems somewhat specific to the situation, where the sperm donation only happened that way because of a vasectomy, and the father was present at birth and acted as a parent. That's a far cry from contractual release of liability ahead of time.

That said, I do agree that future legal precedents can give cause, but likely to the same degree as any sperm donor. Then again, in reality someone famous (and likely wealthy) selling their own sperm is more likely to be a target, so interesting precedents might be set...

So maybe with mandatory escrow large enough to pay child support, refundable when the child is 18.

For the rich only, obviously.

> Moulay Ismaïl is alleged to have fathered a total of 867 children, including 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703, with his 700th child being born in 1721. It is estimated that he had 2,000 concubines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_Ibn_Sharif

"A lack of regulation has created enormous genetic families..."

Do we really need to regulate everything involving sexual encounters nowaday?

Artificial procreation isn't a sexual encounter, it's a type of medical procedure, which is up for regulation.

Crikey. I'm the oldest of 13 siblings and I thought that was crazy. We're all the same parents and family unit.

I do remember a family when I was a child in the 80s that were a bit... feral. They had 20 kids, they even made the national news.

Why don’t we establish a free market for sperm and let the best ones win? Surely people would pay a lot of money for the sperm of a gifted man?

Putting some good money behind donation would then encourage more men to do it, leading to more variety.

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