Canadian fertility clinic bans patient from using non-white donor

[mota bhai 2,675]

This story is wild. But the comment thread on rt.com is even better.

A single Canadian woman, who sought in vitro fertilization in the only local clinic in Calgary, has been prohibited from using donors of a different ethnicity to avoid “creating rainbow families.”

The 38-year old woman, who requested to use only her first name, Catherine, told the Calgary Herald that “everything went downhill” when last March she learned that she could only use sperm, eggs or embryos from donors who were white, like her.

...

Dr. Calvin Greene The Regional Fertility Program (RFP), where Catherine went to undergo in vitro fertilization, is firm on his position.

Greene stressed that the RFP would deny couples or singles who insist on using donors of a different ethnicity under a policy in operation since the center was opened in the 1980’s.

“I’m not sure that we should be creating rainbow families just because some single woman decides that that’s what she wants,” Dr. Calvin Greene, the clinic’s administrative director told the Herald. “That’s her prerogative, but that’s not her prerogative in our clinic.”

...

Doctors at the clinic, Greene said, feel “a child of an ethnic background should have the ability to be able to identify with their ethnic roots.” He added patients should have a “cultural connection” to their donors.

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Greene insists that given today’s multicultural society and demographic predictions that Caucasian people will soon be the minority in many Canadian cities.

http://rt.com/news/175936-canada-fertility-woman-donor/

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

My suspicion would be that this person is an idiot and that the policy is there for more than one reason, not just to prevent 'rainbow' families, though I have no doubt that they are, correctly in my opinion, trying to let children keep their roots. There is a very, very limited sperm donation pool in Canada. VERY limited. A few years back, there were nine donors (not counting a handful of donors you could get imported for you) and they only allow a certain number of children from each donor. Non-white donors are in an extreme minority. If all the white people use all the sperm from the non-white donors, then people who are not white and looking to have a baby that is of their ethnicity would have some issues.

[mota bhai 2,675]

My suspicion would be that this person is an idiot and that the policy is there for more than one reason, not just to prevent 'rainbow' families, though I have no doubt that they are, correctly in my opinion, trying to let children keep their roots. There is a very, very limited sperm donation pool in Canada. VERY limited. A few years back, there were nine donors (not counting a handful of donors you could get imported for you) and they only allow a certain number of children from each donor. Non-white donors are in an extreme minority. If all the white people use all the sperm from the non-white donors, then people who are not white and looking to have a baby that is of their ethnicity would have some issues.

From the rt.com link:

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

And there are a lot of reasons that could be. One of them being that a lot of non-white people feel strongly that a child should have ethnic roots, but another being the extreme shortage of unknown sperm donors in Canada. They aren't talking about WHY they made that choice. They are saying that this is their policy. And frankly, if she doesn't like it, then go somewhere else or use a known donor seem to be her choices. I don't know why she's kicking up such a fuss.