Genetic screening is safer

Re “Registry may track egg, sperm donors,” Jan. 3

As a father of two healthy children who were conceived in the same way as Krystie Karl-Steiger, I think this story missed an important point: Despite the semi-anonymous donor process, the risk of genetic disease is far lower for these kids than for children conceived outside of the artificial fertility process.

The number of tests our egg donor and we had to undergo before the day of conception was staggering, not only in volume but also in expense. We were tested for Tay-Sachs even though we were not part of an at-risk group. We also had the benefit of using an egg from a 20-year-old, which is safer than an older egg donor.

Conception is a risky process, but by every measure, our risk was a fraction of that incurred by selfish couples who decide to reproduce with no genetic screening.

Jim Smith

Toluca Lake