Thursday, October 9, 2014

A Sperm Bank just for Super Smart People

A millionaire creates a sperm bank  that only accepts donations from exceptional men like Nobel laureates, athletes and geniuses with super high IQ's. Meet Robert K. Graham who made his fortune from inventing shatterproof eyeglasses; is the founder of Repository for Germinal Choice in 1980. It operated for 19 years, two years after he passed away. The mission of this sperm bank is "To create a generation of smarter, healthier, more productive members of society." Robert wanted to improve the human gene pool.



As a result of this sperm bank, it was thought to be a Nobel Prize but people thought Robert was a racist and he was resurrecting the ideas that gave rise to Nazi Germany but he denied the accusations. Woman who applied for the sperm bank only paid $50 for application fees and $10 a month for storage and shipping charges. The woman didn't have to be a genius to get sperm; no genetic testing  or IQ test had to be done.. They only required the women's to be married. The sperm donors were recruited from college campuses. All the donors were white and most of them remained anonymous.
 There were total of 215 children that were produced from the sperm bank which of many live ordinary lives. Most of the kids did well in school and seem ordinary adults. Some of them have spoken publicly; Tom as an adult runs a roofing business, Leandra is an opera singer, and Courtney is a dancer, Logan has a form of autism. The sperm bank does not guarantee for a super smart person. Because of Graham, it has been made easy for other sperm banks for determining the sperm donors.
I think Graham had a great vision of improving the gene pool. But the only problem I have with this is that the woman who received the sperm should have been tested for IQ and genetic screening.
 

3 comments:

  1. I think this is outrageous. Does genetics really have that much to do with intelligence? I believe self-motivation and hard-work can help any child become smart. Relying on your genetics to create a smart child is a shame. Through your moral and values, and how you bring up your child in this world will ultimately determine how smart your kid is, or wants to be!

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  2. That is crazy to think that people would actually think that the male's sperm is more valuable in the sense of inheriting intelligence. If a child's intellegence is determined based on the father, wouldn't the mother's genes need to be tested too to maximize the intelligence of the child? I agree that the women should have been tested for also and it is kind of sad that people do not have faith in themselves to be a good parent and raise their child to be intelligent. A lot of what we consider intelligent comes from learning discipline at a young age.

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  3. As I began reading this post, the first thing that came to mind was the mission of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Ironically enough, as I read a little further I saw it was mentioned in the post. I find it appalling that an individual could have the audacity to create such a sperm bank. In my opinion, an act like this goes way beyond crossing the line of ethical behavior. Personally, this is against my moral beliefs and I strongly believe it should be outlawed. No individual should ever try to manipulate the human gene pool, genetic variation occurs for a reason.

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