The Man With 17 Kids (And Counting)

[demmiblue]

After becoming a sperm donor, Tim Gullicksen wanted to get to know his donor kids. Now he invites them all out to a lake in California every summer.



When Tim Gullicksen began donating to a sperm bank in 1989, he never expected to meet his biological children. He never imagined renting a 15-passenger van to take them to California’s Bass Lake every summer. Or envisioned the kids hiking, playing pranks, and competing viciously over silly games they invented together. But this July, Tim will—as has now become an annual tradition—rent that van, fill it with food from Costco, and take the kids out to Bass Lake for a week.

The “kids” are 18 to 25 years old now, adults really. Some have been coming to Bass Lake for a decade.

Over the years, they have found Tim in one of two ways: a website called the Donor Sibling Registry, which connects people by donor number, or, more recently, DNA tests from 23andMe or AncestryDNA. These tools have allowed many donor-conceived people to connect with their donors and donor siblings. But Tim, a 52-year-old real-estate agent in San Francisco, is unusually involved, and the sibling group unusually tight-knit. When I asked whether I could interview any of the siblings, he shot off a message in their Instagram group chat. Eleven of them quickly agreed.

“I just feel really lucky. This is a really, really cool situation,” says Emma Walker, who met Tim after taking a DNA test four years ago, when she was 16. She went to her first Bass Lake reunion in 2016. “It was overwhelming in the best of ways,” she says. “We pulled up in a car, and people just ran up to us and were hugging us.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/06/sperm-donor-17-kids/591178/

[matt819]

1. As long as this is what they all want, fine

But I find it downright weird.

The kids are not his kids, and he is not their father. He is a sperm donor. And now that everyone seems to be a DNA registry of some kind, they can no longer retain any privacy (of course, they can try to opt out of the sharing). So, whether you want it or not, you find siblings you may have no interest in knowing, or even knowing about. And what gives this sperm donor any sort of "right" to somehow be involved in their lives?

But that's only me. If everyone's happy, that's fine.

[marble falls]

3. Gotta agree. There's just the smallest it of a creepy vibe about it.

[appalachiablue]

2. Happy for them, it's their business and life.

[marble falls]

4. And at the same time, "it's their business and life."

[appalachiablue]

5. Based on the article these young people have great outlooks

and each other now for friendship and support, also Tim. That's nothing but positive to me. What exactly are you concerned about?