Multiple Autistic Children Linked to an Individual Sperm Donor
Here is an interesting story showing that the development of autism has a strong genetic component. A number of parents who used the same sperm donor had children who developed autism. The sperm donor was an individual with high intelligence and other desirable characteristics according to the sperm bank information.
The first child described is Dylan, who has evidence of autism and is able to do amazing things with mathematics and music. At age 5 he has been able to memorize the NY subway map,play piano well, draw artwork of high quality, and read at the fourth grade level. His mother is a professor at Fordham University in NY.
The mother contacted the sperm bank and located other children who had the same genetic father–she discovered that out of six families, three had autistic children.
ref:http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/04/02/autism.sperm.donor/index.html
