Sunday, February 03, 2008

Private musings

Yesterday, an article in Japan Times really got me thinking. Should children born through artificial insemination be told who their real father is? Or is ignorance really bliss in such matters?

Conceiving children through artificial insemination by donor, or AID, is undertaken by couples who cannot have children due to the male partner’s problems. This technology, like using surrogate mothers, can bless an otherwise childless couple with a child. But it has raised many questions regarding whether the child should be told the whole truth, and whether the identity of the sperm donors should be kept secret.

According to Japan Times, “Japan had its first AID baby in 1949 when a girl was born at Keio University Hospital in Tokyo. More than 10,000 babies have reportedly been born via this method at Keio and other hospitals since then, but details have been kept secret, including the names of the sperm donors.

“One woman in her 20s who asked not to be named said her mother told her five years ago she was an AID baby. She learned the truth when she was distraught about whether she would suffer from the same illness that her father had, which was hereditary.

She said her mother's acknowledgment cleared up why her father did not have much interest in her, and her own feeling that she was somehow different from the rest of the relatives.

A doctor in his 30s said he learned from a blood test five years ago while in medical school that his father's blood was not in his veins. "My parents are my present parents. I don't consider the donor my father," he said, while admitting he would still like to find the person. "I'd feel completely different if I'd known about my background when I was a child and met the donor."

Now with cloning a possibility and further advances in biotechnology, we might face more moral dilemmas in the future. It seems, science and life do not make good partners, but then, what about the childless couples who really want to have a child?

Going to a completely different topic, just a few minutes ago, I read an interesting news on the Tibetan website phayul.com. A writer claims that Tenzing Norgay was a Tibetan. I had read years ago how Tenzin Norgay, after his triumphant conquest of the Everest, traveled around with two passports – one Indian and one Nepali passport, because both countries claimed he was their citizen. Had Tibet been independent, he would have probably traveled with three passports.

I guess the famous Sharchokpa song “Rang thur dasur drag ne (if you are successful), god kan ja tong sho na (Thousands flock to you), dasur zhen than de ne (In case, you are a failure), god kan ogai sho lay (who will look at you?)” rings true always.

No comments:

Restoring the only surviving photograph of Trashigang Lama Neten Sonam Dorji from Bartsham (circa 1901 - 1968)

  During the early to mid-twentieth century, when Bhutan was under the reign of the First King and the Second King, just before the country ...