THIS summer, a young man who had been conceived by donor insemination was able to track down his “anonymous” genetic father. His genius was in using his own Y chromosome to home in on the man’s name, something possible thanks to the popularity of genetic genealogy (see “Tracing dad online”). In so doing, he has thrown open the doors to a new era in which donor anonymity can no longer be assured.
In the early days, assisted reproduction seemed so technologically tidy, with separate roles for parents, and egg and sperm donors. Nobody guessed that the children born from…
