Gene Pool

[goodwood]

What do you think about the gene pool that you would have children with?
I heard a piece on National Public Radio about some Swedish woman who was single and went to a sperm bank and she openly said that she wanted to have a 'viking baby' and that it was important to her to have a child from a similar gene pool.
I fcome from a background that is of the mindset that this woman spoke of. So i understand that desire.
I also have many friends who have very diversified and multi-cultural families and appreciate adoption of any race imaginable and inter-racial marriages as long as the family unit is happy and well adjusted.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Thanks. - Chris

 

[Captain Elephant]

I have chosen to be child-free and probably because of the gene pool that I would be contributing to. My wife has a child by a man who by some miracle assisted in creating a beautiful creature who, God willing, will inherit none of the characteristics of her father.

I do not fully understand the division of races and instead think it is a division of cultures.

 

[whatireallywant]

I've also chosen to be child-free, but if I was going to have children, it wouldn't matter what race the father was, just as long as he isn't from the SHALLOW end of the gene pool! :biggrin1:

 

[Principessa]

What do you think about the gene pool that you would have children with?

Since pregnancy isn't exactly imminent for me I have no idea what gene pool you might mean.
I heard a piece on National Public Radio about some Swedish woman who was single and went to a sperm bank and she openly said that she wanted to have a 'viking baby' and that it was important to her to have a child from a similar gene pool.

I come from a background that is of the mindset that this woman spoke of. So i understand that desire.

Careful there, remember you don't want to end up with children that resemble the unfortunate visage of the Hapsburg Family.

Politically motivated inbreeding in the Hapsburg dynasty led to the notorious "Hapsburg lip" or "Hapsburg jaw" (mandibular prognathism) first observed in Maximilian I (1459-1519).

The plethora of portraits of Hapsburg family members enables us to follow the trait through the generations.

The Hapsburg's intermarriage policy came back to bite them in the ass in 1665 when Charles II (the Bewitched) came to the Spanish throne. Not only did poor Charles have the most pronounced case of the Hapsburg jaw on record (his jaw was so deformed that he was unable to chew), he was also mentally retarded and impotent. He named Philip V of Anjou, a Bourbon relation, as his successor, which led to the War of the Spanish Succession at his death in 1700. The war ended Hapsburg hegemony in Spain and was the beginning of the end for the dynasty.

Maybe this ought to go on the Dentistry thread as well? How did a dental problem cause the downfall of a dynasty? There are three Ds in that sentence alone...
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I also have many friends who have very diversified and multi-cultural families and appreciate adoption of any race imaginable and inter-racial marriages as long as the family unit is happy and well adjusted.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Thanks. - Chris[/quote]
My lineage is a far cry from pure, so I never worried about that. I always figured I'd marry a white guy, just cause that's who I tend to date. I never considered it weakening my gene pool. I think it's weird that people still think in those terms.

I have chosen to be child-free and probably because of the gene pool that I would be contributing to.

My wife has a child by a man who by some miracle assisted in creating a beautiful creature who, God willing, will inherit none of the characteristics of her father.

Funny how that happens, isn't it. :biggrin1: My cousin has a beautiful, smart, joyful son fathered by a man we all call the "donor daddy." Her son is 7.5 now and none of us have see or heard from the "donor daddy" since the child was 6 months old.

I do not fully understand the division of races and instead think it is a division of cultures.

I think it's a mix of both.

 

[Jovial]

The gene pool I'm looking for isn't based on race or ethnicity. I just want to mate with someone with good genes in addition to being a good person and potentially good mother.

 

[Fire Stick]

I didn’t see the documentary, so I do not know full context of why the woman wanted what she wanted. However, I will point out that her desire may not be rooted in racism or anti-diversity. I think it’s fairly natural for many people (but not all, certainly) who adopt a child or who conceive a child via a sperm or egg donor to want the child to look like they look in respect to race, coloring, and other physical characteristics. This is probably not so much due to ethnocentrism or egomania, but rather a desire to have offspring that takes after yourself, particularly in circumstances where the child is conceived with a total stranger, such as through a sperm bank.

 

[goodwood]

Thanks for the thoughts fine people. I am absolutely with Jovial in his thoughts of a life partner and mother of his children.
Njqt - no worries about a Hapsburg situation. LOL. Thanks for the history though. Very much enjoyed that.
Thanks Firestick - your thoughts are exactly what the woman on the program was talking about, and truth be told, what I think most of us desire in a mate and offspring.

 

[EagleCowboy]

More chlorine in the gene pool please!! :biggrin1:

 

[whatireallywant]

I didn’t see the documentary, so I do not know full context of why the woman wanted what she wanted. However, I will point out that her desire may not be rooted in racism or anti-diversity. I think it’s fairly natural for many people (but not all, certainly) who adopt a child or who conceive a child via a sperm or egg donor to want the child to look like they look in respect to race, coloring, and other physical characteristics. This is probably not so much due to ethnocentrism or egomania, but rather a desire to have offspring that takes after yourself, particularly in circumstances where the child is conceived with a total stranger, such as through a sperm bank.

That could be. Some people ARE racist when it comes to that, but I wouldn't assume it of her just because of what she'd said, particularly in the context of going to a sperm bank.

Actually, I did read something recently that said that people are more naturally attracted to people whose genes are different from theirs. I usually don't place much stock in the "biology is destiny" kind of arguments when talking about attraction, sex, etc. (except for sexual orientation) - however, THIS made sense. It would be biology's way of AVOIDING the Hapsburg situation...

I have also heard that often people of the same "race" can be more genetically dissimilar than people of different "races". Not necessarily, but being of the same race or different seems to be irrelevant as to genetic similarity or dissimilarity.