Ryan Kramer, a young boy conceived using an anonymous sperm donor, always wanted to know something about his father.
Unable to find the donor himself, Kramer struck on the next best thing: contacting others who shared the same paternal blood -- his half-brothers and sisters.
Kramer's simple dream has since turned into a Web site that has connected nearly 2,000 people to genetic relatives, the children of mothers who shared the same sperm donors.
Run by Kramer's mother Wendy, the Internet-based Donor Sibling Registry allows children of sperm donors who are over 18, their mothers and donors themselves to register to find out about each other.
"At the beginning I just had this curious child," Wendy Kramer said. "He had always been curious about his donor, what he called `the invisible side' of himself.
"And knowing that he may never get to know who the donor was, he thought: `Well, if there is a brother or sister perhaps I can see that invisible part of myself, and see that in another person, because we all share half of our DNA,'" she said.
That quest turned into the Web site that she runs from her Colorado home, www.donorsiblingregistry.com, which today has about 7,000 registered users.
And, with about 30,000 children born each year in the US as a result of anonymous sperm donations, the registry gets new members every day.
"It just evolved and I've been running after it ever since because it got bigger than me," Wendy Kramer said.
Often people have very little to work with to seek out others on the Web site who share the same paternal genes -- sometimes simply technical details about the donor given by the sperm bank:
"Born 1960. Russian Jewish + German Protestant. Height: 5ft 11 inches. Weight: 145 pounds. Blood type A+. College education, probably a medical student at time of donation. Temporary taxi driver. Allergic to peanuts -- slight asthma as a child."
But in two years, such sparse descriptions have allowed 1,857 people to connect with blood-relatives through the site, Kramer said, with the result that "People are flying all over the country, e-mailing, [trading] pictures and phone calls."
"When people connect on the Web site it can be anything from the sharing of medical information to hopping on a plane the next week and fly to meet each other and create this relationship that will then last for the rest of their lives," she said.
The registry organizes information by donor clinic and by state. Ten foreign countries -- including Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and South Africa -- are also included, though there is less information.
Amy DeKay posted an advert on the site because her three year-old son has a rare disease, but also because her own father recently died.
"I lost my father in September and my son was very attached to him. I have never really discussed the issue that my son doesn't have a `father' with him," DeKay said in an interview.
"Yet he proudly proclaimed to his preschool class one morning that he doesn't have a `Dad' but a `Mom, Christine, Sissy and a special Papa [grandfather],'" she said.
"We have a very small family. As my son struggles with the death of his Papa, I sincerely feel meeting more children like him, siblings, and/or his donor, can extend his network and future family ties," she said.
The Sperm Donor Registry grows by the day, helping to lift the stigma of having an anonymous father as children find out more about how they were conceived and that they are not alone.
Kramer insists that there has to be mutual consent for meetings and other forms of communications, and that makes the Web site's role valuable.
"I call it redefining family because it takes the family out of the context that we've always held it. You have to look at it in a whole new way. These people are essentially strangers, yet at the same time very much related to each other," she said.
Kramer said that site members were making a "profound connection" through the contacts.
"People ... are not going into this to `find daddy.' They just want their questions answered. There's a misconception sometimes that these donor-conceived people want a daddy or they want financial help. But this couldn't be further from the truth," she said.
"They just want to know where they came from," she added.
The site is not just a hub for those born of donated sperm -- more than 360 donors have chosen to make themselves known on the register.
"I was a donor for about eight months around 1990. Since the birth of my first daughter almost three years ago, I have felt compelled to start searching for any offspring from my donor time," says one in an entry.
"I am willing to share family history, stories, pictures and even meet. I don't know for sure that there were any births from my donations, but I want any donor children to know that I have thought about them often over the years," the entry says.
Matthew Niedner, a 34-year-old doctor who was a donor for several years, told of his experience on CBS television's 60 Minutes program.
"This may sound a little detached, but I don't really look at these children as my children or, you know, that I'm their father. I was somebody who provided a tool or a necessary ingredient for a family to have a child that was wanted," he said.
"I think different children will think differently," he added.
Even so, Niedner is also ready to meet anyone who he is the father of.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.