I'm baffled. Modern technology has a nearly foolproof method for men to prevent conceptions they don't desire, why don't all these so worried men just freeze a sample or three and get their tubes snipped? It's not nearly as expensive as an unwanted baby and there's no loss of fertility. Indeed with the research showing that genetic problems rise with men's age too, they'd probably have healthier babies.

It's a currently usuable solution which doesn't infringe on a woman's right to make the choice about what happens in her body. It doesn't leave a child unsupported. It doesn't require that men be celibate. What's the downside?

I'd be perfectly willing to have my wife artificially inseminated with my frozen sperm; of course we went through infertility problems and so similar solutions may not seem as distasteful to me as they would to others. May I point out that not choosing an option because you find the consequences distasteful doesn't make the option inviable. Much like that some women find abortion distasteful doesn't make it an inviable option.

I don't know the storage life of frozen sperm, however I think that it's pretty long. Perhaps someone else here has that knowledge? I do think that we're going to have the ability to take adult stem cells and create sperm from them in the near future. Also some vasectomies can be reversed.

If you're worried that the sample would be switched, either on purpose or accidentally; insist on a provision that it would be DNA tested before use. Only the tiniest portion of it would be needed for the test. This would inform the agency that they'd be caught if they committed fraud or made an error. You could also use two separate banks if you were very worried about losing the sample.

Does anyone seriously believe that most women would refuse to sleep with a man who'd had a vasectomy? That's not likely unless he refused to use a condom because he knew he was infertile.

If we can find a pill that will regulate the viability of a man's sperm with no more danger associated with it than with the pill women can take (not insignificant danger BTW) I'd be all in favor of it. I have two sons after all.

I do fully agree that if the mother wishes to put the child up for adoption, fathers who want the child should be preferred over adoptive parents. I'd also agree that in that case she should be liable for child support at the same rate that a father making her income would be.

People are indeed looking at autoimmune diseases and autism:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/432692

http://www.nitrf.org/inftautism.html

http://www.grc.nia.nih.gov/branches/rrb/dna/pubs/cgoatad.pdf

I'm just googling, I don't have the expertise to evaluate the data. The link in the last paper to Tourette's is particularly interesting, as Tourette's apparently helps make connections between objects and the words for them, the whole area of the brain just moves faster:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070713131417.htm

Also ADHD and autism are different:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070730111646.htm

ADHD and NT kids have better motor skills with increased white matter, while Spectrum kids have worse ones.

I know a househusband/doctor pair who are very happy. They just had their first child, a real cutie!

In my experience as a housewife a lot of time is spent on unpaid work for the community. I help out at school, because I can, I have time; and that helps all the kids, the school district, and the parents who can't be there. I help out with scouting stuff and that lets working parents be able to drop their kids off at meetings or camp. I suspect that for childfree housespouses there are other similar activities that get done, work at volunteer jobs that are more difficult for working people, especially working parents to do. I really boggle at the idea of trying to work and be involved with kids and a house too. I admire the organization that must take.

Different people have different talents and needs, and sometimes you even surprise yourself with what you end up doing with your life. I had expected to end up a single, childfree working woman all my growing up years.

Um, and anyone who takes years to learn how to repair appliances is a doofus. I've done it with next to no knowledge, just a manual or the internet and some common sense. Takes maybe a week if you have to ask a forum a question. There are some strength jobs that are better done by my husband, but I have a better eye for detail and more coordination than he does. He's better at chatting up the hardware store people for ideas though, much better at social stuff than I am.

I had a similar experience of Girl Scouts as an artsy-craftsy boring indoor thing--I'd have loved to go camping, hiking, fishing etc. I loved science and biology, a day trip identifying trees and flowers would have been heaven. A day camp devoted to spa stuff sounds utterly boring to me. I imagine it sounded utterly boring to the boys too, so none of their parents objected, which is why the story concentrates on the discrimination against the girl.

With the obesity crisis, we need to be teaching all the kids that being outside and doing things is fun, not just the boys. I don't necessarily object to sex specific camps, but I do object that the girls didn't have any active camps.