Calgary Fertility Clinic racial policy

[tete]

Originally Posted by Teh_Bandwagoner

So what about mixed lesbian couples? Say you have a black and white couple. Is the white girl allowed to pick a black donor, or vice versa?

I believe so, yes, but I"m not 100% certain.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

To be truely non-racial, shouldn't the policy be that we don't disclose the gender ethnicity of the donor?

I'm assuming that's what you meant -- pretty sure the donor is male

And to your point, if people want to argue that ethnicity doesn't matter, I agree that you shouldn't disclose that information at all. So the white mom can end up with a half-Black, half-Chinese, half-East Indian or half-Aboriginal baby -- whatever it ends up being... how many people are going to agree now?

[driveway]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

I'm assuming that's what you meant -- pretty sure the donor is male

And to your point, if people want to argue that ethnicity doesn't matter, I agree that you shouldn't disclose that information at all. So the white mom can end up with a half-Black, half-Chinese, half-East Indian or half-Aboriginal baby -- whatever it ends up being... how many people are going to agree now?

Yeah, that would obviously be the policy in an ideal world. However, none of us live in the ideal world, so I'm sure parents would like to be advised of the ethnicity of their potential donors.

However, having a blanket policy of not even presenting the option of a donor of a different ethnicity because "reasons" is clearly a racist position.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by driveway

Yeah, that would obviously be the policy in an ideal world. However, none of us live in the ideal world, so I'm sure parents would like to be advised of the ethnicity of their potential donors.

However, having a blanket policy of not even presenting the option of a donor of a different ethnicity because "reasons" is clearly a racist position.

No it isnt.

With current technology we can determine

Gender
Eye colour
Predisposition to certain diseases
Genetic defects
Potential heights
Propensity for endurance or strength based sports
Race

We have the technology to design a baby the question is should we? Does it matter that raceis detected from a photograph (usually) whereas gender is determined by dna testing. To me a fertike couple coming in because they want a different ethnic groups traits is trying to design their baby. This should not be permitted.

Also in term of selecting a mate tbe person already selected a partner of a certain race. If a certain race was a priority the individual should have already made that selection. The couple wanting to choose by race is racist not the clinic.

The only time this could be racist is if the reason for selecting the doner was based on the donors non racial traits and that particular donor was the best set of traits. Even then selecting the best sperm candidate is very designer baby like.

[driveway]

You're very wrong, the policy was racist. We're not talking about people walking in the door and saying "I want a black baby." We're talking about a woman, or couple, being presented with their choices of donors and not being presented donors of a different ethnicity.

When asked, the clinic replied that this policy existed because matching ethnicities is "important" for some reason, identifying the underlying reason as being that somehow, the ethnicity of a child matters in the eventual outcomes for that child, or that a difference between a child's ethnicity and their parent's ethnicity is problematic.

Now, some people may have the experience in their life of being treated differently because of their ethnicity, or a difference in their ethnicity between them and their parents, but that is because of racism.

It was never the patients making ethnicity a priority in their donor selection, it was the clinic, and that is obviously racist.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by driveway

You're very wrong, the policy was racist. We're not talking about people walking in the door and saying "I want a black baby." We're talking about a woman, or couple, being presented with their choices of donors and not being presented donors of a different ethnicity.

When asked, the clinic replied that this policy existed because matching ethnicities is "important" for some reason, identifying the underlying reason as being that somehow, the ethnicity of a child matters in the eventual outcomes for that child, or that a difference between a child's ethnicity and their parent's ethnicity is problematic.

Now, some people may have the experience in their life of being treated differently because of their ethnicity, or a difference in their ethnicity between them and their parents, but that is because of racism.

It was never the patients making ethnicity a priority in their donor selection, it was the clinic, and that is obviously racist.

The one case that went to the human rights commission was a fertile couple looking for a non-white donor

Also as per the clinic statement the psycologist quoted in the article was speaking for himself and not the clinc.

[driveway]

The case being discussed in the article was a single woman seeking in vitro fertilization, being presented with a list of donors, asking to see an extended list including donors of other ethnicities, and being refused.