He did a DNA test, found the anonymous donor with whom he designed his daughter and paid a "devastating" price.

Danielle Teuscher designed her daughter Zoe, five years old, with the sperm of an anonymous donor. By signing the contract, he promised not to try to discover the identity of the man. He never imagined that would break without knowing this rule to achieve, with other family members and the girl, a DNA business review, those who indicate risks of eye color, a major tendency to certain diseases or the place of origin of the ancestors.

The site 23andMe showed him a surprising result: between the possible parent was a woman who was probably Zoe's paternal grandmother.

The company allows customers to contact each other whenever they wishand the woman manifested as being open to contact. Teuscher wrote to him:

"Hi, I think your son could have been the donor of my daughter. I've spent weeks thinking about contacting her or not. The last thing I would like to do is go beyond or put somebody in any way uncomfortable. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that we are here and that we are open to contact you. With best wishes, Danielle and Zoé. "

The woman replied that I did not understand the message; Teuscher is excused and no longer writes.

However, immediately Teuscher received an injunction from Northwest Cryobank, the sperm bank to which he referred, warning him that he should stop looking for the father's identity or they would be fine with $ 20,000. And that as a result of his act, he was informed, they had withdrawn access to four other ampoules containing sperm from the same donorthat she had bought so that his daughter will have biological brothers in the future.

"It was devastating," Teuscher told CBS. "I was shocked, I cried for days, I could barely eat." I was almost ashamed. I thought I was doing something for my daughter's sakeand suddenly, he turned against me in such a hard way that I felt as if I had done something terrible, as if I were a criminal. "

He complained of the loss of the bulbs: "They literally took my babies, my future babies"he said. Northwest Cryobank told the chain that Teuscher would be reimbursed for the money that she would have paid for the sperm that she could not use but not the cells.

The bank added that its rules do not prohibit DNA studiesbut this "is problematic when the results are used to contact a donor or his family". The company recalled the contract that prohibits the search for identity; Teuscher noted that she had actually signed it – "well, you tick the boxes" – but your daughter does not, and "the girl is a living, breathing person, who feels. "

The case shows a conflict that as access to genetic testing gains popularity, it will have to be repeated in children conceived through donors and those who lend their sperm to children whom they do not know. Register of donor brothers and sisters (The Brothers' Register for Donors), a group that puts them in touch with their families, believes that there is a right violated.

"We have all established links with thousands of people," he told CBS. Wendy Kramer, director of the institution, whose son has 18 donors identified so far by DNA studies. "It's a right to know the truth about one's DNA, one's own story, one's family members, and one's medical history."

From the donor's perspective, Northwest Cryobank said all donors will not want access, which is also a right. "On the other side of the gift, there is a human being who can have a couple, parents, a job and their own children, "explained the institution. And unsolicited contact "could endanger these relationships and families."