Autistic children linked to same sperm donor

[CrimsonWhite]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- He's only 5½ years old, and yet he's practically memorized the entire New York subway grid.

He reads at the fourth-grade level, plays two-handed piano compositions and is better versed than most adults about the Fibonacci code, a complex mathematics sequence.

Dylan loves Italian music and draws pictures that artist Jackson Pollock would be proud of.

He also happens to be autistic.

Gwenyth Jackaway, Dylan's mother, is a professor at New York's Fordham University. She's single but had always wanted to have a child. So she contacted California Cryobank, one of the largest sperm donor banks in the country.

Cryobank doesn't reveal the identities of donors but allows people to choose based on the traits they'd like their child to have. Jackaway decided on "Donor X" because he appeared philosophical and intelligent on paper. He liked music, loved to travel and had a high IQ and a degree in economics.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/04/02/autism.sperm.donor/index.html

Another interesting read.

 

[bennylava]

I was talking about this in the other autism thread.
I read an article about this in O magazine. A group of mothers who all chose donor X have formed a support group, and almost all the kids that are his have some kind of autism spectrum disorder.

 

[Angel Heart]

It shows DNA is the root of it. Environment can make it better or worse but not be the cause of it.

 

[bennylava]

Like I said in the other thread, it could be like PKU, where the disease doesn't show up unless the person is exposed to certain substances or even certain viruses.

 

[Angel Heart]

Well I don't think that's it. I think it would be there even with out a 'trigger'.

 

[jillian]

Well I don't think that's it. I think it would be there even with out a 'trigger'.

Perhaps at some level. But it does seem that innoculation triggers it for a large number of children. It's the same as some people being able to smoke all their lives without ill effect and others getting cancer. There's a genetic predisposition that is acted upon.

 

[bennylava]

Just like some people can drink and drink and not get addicted, while others become alcoholics. Now do we blame the alcohol industry for this? Yes and no. We don't let them advertise on TV, we limit their other forms of marketing, we place all kinds of restrictions on the distribution and purchasing of alcohol.

Similar things could happen with the vaccine industry.

 

[jillian]

Just like some people can drink and drink and not get addicted, while others become alcoholics. Now do we blame the alcohol industry for this? Yes and no. We don't let them advertise on TV, we limit their other forms of marketing, we place all kinds of restrictions on the distribution and purchasing of alcohol.

Similar things could happen with the vaccine industry.

I think at least part of the problem is that not innoculating children is a much greater societal problem via return of killer diseases than is a certain level of autism which is a much more individual family pain. I mean, let's face it... small pox being spread is far more devestating to us than autism.

Now, I know a pretty good argument was made earlier for why there's no correlation between autism and innoculation, so I don't want to discount that. I think it more likely though that it's exactly as you describe.

As to susceptibility, I for one have no problem having a single drink....and, in fact, enjoy having the odd drink. But if I have a single cigarette, I will be out within the hour buying a pack (as two rounds of acupuncture with "just one" cigarette in between showed me).

 

[bennylava]

I would hope eventually we could find a way to test for that sensitivity, and those kids would be given a waiver of some kind.
Or we could slow down the vaccination schedule.

 

[Angel Heart]

I know I don't want to go back to the world with out vac's. But I do agree we need to always research for the better way. Be it changing the time table we give them or what's in them. Just as anything else in life should be reevaluated from time to time and changed as needed.

 

[jillian]

Exactly

 

[nibor]

I know I don't want to go back to the world with out vac's. But I do agree we need to always research for the better way. Be it changing the time table we give them or what's in them. Just as anything else in life should be reevaluated from time to time and changed as needed.

Could it be that they're administered TOO YOUNG...............AND TOO MUCH?