Bioethics Discussion Blog: Old Fathers, Sick Children?

REMINDER: I AM POSTING A NEW TOPIC ABOUT ONCE A WEEK OR PERHAPS TWICE A WEEK. HOWEVER, IF YOU DON'T FIND A NEW TOPIC POSTED, THERE ARE AS OF MARCH 2013 OVER 900 TOPIC THREADS TO WHICH YOU CAN READ AND WRITE COMMENTS. I WILL BE AWARE OF EACH COMMENTARY AND MAY COME BACK WITH A REPLY.

TO FIND A TOPIC OF INTEREST TO YOU ON THIS BLOG, SIMPLY TYPE IN THE NAME OR WORDS RELATED TO THE TOPIC IN THE FIELD IN THE LEFT HAND SIDE AT TOP OF THE PAGE AND THEN CLICK ON “SEARCH BLOG”. WITH WELL OVER 900 TOPICS, MOST ABOUT GENERAL OR SPECIFIC ETHICAL ISSUES BUT NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO ANY SPECIFIC DATE OR EVENT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND WHAT YOU WANT. IF YOU DON’T PLEASE WRITE TO ME ON THE FEEDBACK THREAD OR BY E-MAIL DoktorMo@aol.com

IMPORTANT REQUEST TO ALL WHO COMMENT ON THIS BLOG: ALL COMMENTERS WHO WISH TO SIGN ON AS ANONYMOUS NEVERTHELESS PLEASE SIGN OFF AT THE END OF YOUR COMMENTS WITH A CONSISTENT PSEUDONYM NAME OR SOME INITIALS TO HELP MAINTAIN CONTINUITY AND NOT REQUIRE RESPONDERS TO LOOK UP THE DATE AND TIME OF THE POSTING TO DEFINE WHICH ANONYMOUS SAID WHAT. Thanks. ..Maurice

FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK! WRITE YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS BLOG, WHAT IS GOOD, POOR AND CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT TO THIS FEEDBACK THREAD

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Old Fathers, Sick Children?

Leslie Feldman has suggested to me that there is beginning evidence to suspect that the father’s age at conception may affect, by genetic changes in the sperm, the presence in the offspring of disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. She writes about this and lists her documentation in the EBDblog. The literature offers genetic explanations for how advancing age may affect the incidence of these and, in fact, other disorders.

If statistics regarding the age-incidence relationship are valid, the question becomes what is the risk? Is the risk only based on age or are other factors known or yet unknown more important? Is the risk sufficient to try to find ways to reduce the risk and therefore possibly reduce the incidence of these disorders? Would there be a well established optimum age for the father’s sperm to be the most “genetically healthy” so that one might encourage potential fathers to cryo-preserve their sperm at the ideal age for later insemination? Finally, is anyone looking for genetically beneficial conditions that might be transmitted to the offspring by the elderly father, not available in the younger ones?

We have already discussed on this blog the ethics of elderly mothers, through one method or another, bearing children. This ethical issue was whether the parents would be living long enough to provide what was felt to be essential parental attention to their young children. With the information brought up by Leslie, the issue also becomes whether, from a genetic point of view, the risk of producing ailing offspring become something, by itself, to discourage. ..Maurice.

1 Comments:

At Thursday, April 19, 2007 3:37:00 PM, Blogger concerned heart said...

There is quite a bit of evidence of the harm to offspring of older fathers, but it is not reported in the press.
Here are the abstracts of some papers written before 2000. Even the gene changes for Huntington's chorea can be derived de novo because of mutations in the sperm makings cells of an older father.

http://fathersageandsinglegenedisorders.blogspot.com/

 

Post a Comment

<< Home