You know the saying, truth is stranger than fiction.
Meet Bertold Wiesner.
He was a British biologist who ran a fertility clinic from the 1940s to 1960s with the help of his wife, Mary Barton.
He claimed to have helped infertile, British women conceive 1,500 children through artificial insemination. That is, by directly injecting sperm into the uterus, by artificial means.
His big drawing card was he claimed to be able to give them intelligent offspring, thanks to sperm donations from “a small number of highly intelligent friends.”
What he was doing in conjunction, or in place of this was all the more immoral and sinister.
WIESNER GETS FOUND OUT
In Spring 2012 or so, news broke when David Gollancz and Barry Stevens came forward with documentary evidence on Bertold Wiesner… their biological father.
The two of them got together, as they had each learned they were conceived in the same clinic. The two men also noticed they looked alike and so they had a DNA test done. Sure enough, they shared the same father: Bertold Wiesner!
A total of 18 people conceived in that clinic between 1943 and 1962 had their DNA tested in 2012. Twelve of them were the biological offspring of Bertold Weisner.
Barry Stevens, who made a documentary about his biological father, estimates his father donated up to 20 times a year, making him the father of 300 to 600 children!
David Gollancz has made contact with at least 11 of his half-siblings, whom were born to other families.
The Daily Mail quotes him as saying, “It’s rather uncomfortable, because artificial insemination was developed on an industrial scale for cattle and I don’t like the feeling of having been ‘bred.’”
How many children did Bertold Wiesner truly, biologically father? We do not know for certain. The man died in 1972, and his wife died in 2001.
WHAT THIS GOES TO SHOW
Deep down we all feel nauseated by what Bertold Wiesner did. This is a natural response, because we know that, by nature, a man should never be the father to 600 children.
By nature, we all recognize how a man becomes a father: by sexual intercourse with a woman, hopefully his wife.
Once you allow for anything outside what nature intended, then where do you draw the line?
We do not know if the women patients for Bertold Wiesner were ever told the identity of man whose sperm he impregnated them with. If Wiesner considered himself to be in that high-IQ class, maybe he did not lie to them.
Now there are potentially 600 people who could meet, fall in love, and then conceive their own children, unknowingly, through incest.
These hundreds of people are robbed of knowing all their siblings.
These people, presumably, never met their biological father, and if they know they were conceived in a clinic, may have serious questions about their identity.
The Daily Mail quotes David Gollancz: “Most recipient parents don’t tell their children they are conceived this way, meaning they would never know to search for a donor father… People have a right to know about their own history.”
HIGHLY IMMORAL
Artificial insemination, IVF, and other such fertility treatments disregard the integrity of the humanity of the baby, the honor for marriage, and the reverence for the conjugal act (CCC 2377).
“The fidelity of the spouses in the unity of marriage involves reciprocal respect of their right to become a father and a mother only through each other. The child has the right to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up within marriage,” stated the Vatican’s Roman Curia.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, each child has a “right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage” (2376).
IN CLOSING
There are other Bertold Wiesner-types out there. I am not sure anyone else has conceived 600 children, but the British doctor is far from an isolated incident. This happens more often than you think.
When will we stop playing God?
The morally licit way to treat infertility—a real cross for millions of couples—is to use Naprotechnology. These doctors help women to treat the underlying causes of their infertility. Their techniques have a proven track record of success, recognize the dignity of children, and do not interfere with the conjugal act.
YOUR TURN
So, please share your thoughts on Bertold Wiesner!
Do you understand the immorality of artificial insemination and IVF?
