Washington Post Profiles Lesbian Couple Seeking to Manufacture a Deaf Child

"This reduces the father to a mere inseminator, raises the prospects of donor shopping and designer genes, and turns a baby into a trophy," says FRC's Ken Connor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a cover story for their Sunday magazine the Washington Post featured an 11-page profile of a lesbian couple that has done all they can to ensure their newborn son will be deaf. Sharon Duchesneau and her partner Candace McCullough, both of whom are deaf, specifically sought out a sperm donor with a history of deafness in his family to increase the chances of their son being deaf.

The women's local sperm bank would not help them because congenital deafness is a trait that disqualifies a potential donor. The couple then sought out their own donor due to their belief that it would be easier for them to raise the child if it were deaf. Using this donor has proven successful for the couple in the past, as they used him five years ago to conceive their daughter who is also deaf.

"This couple has effectively decided that their desire to have a deaf child is of more concern to them than is the burden they are placing on their son," said Connor. "To intentionally give a child a disability, in addition to all the disadvantages that come as a result of being raised in a homosexual household, is incredibly selfish."

The Post story says the women deny they are "trying" to have a deaf child, even though McCullough admits as much by saying, "I would say that we wanted to increase our chances of having a baby who is deaf."

"These women are taking the idea of creating so-called 'designer babies' to a horrible new level," said Connor. "We've seen many parents try to ensure they create children possessing a certain trait, however, this couple has sought to create a child so that he does not possess a certain trait--in this case, the ability to hear."

"One can only hope that this practice of intentionally manufacturing disabled children in order to fit the lifestyles of the parents will not progress any further," said Connor. "The places this slippery slope could lead to are frightening."

For more information on this subject, visit http://www.frc.org. This is a press release from the Family Research Council, April 1, 2002