Does anyone have any information on Dr. Walter Fox and his partner Dr. Adler who practiced in Beverly Hills in the early 1980’s?

We recently received this email from a donor:

“Years ago I contacted them, trying to get information.  But they told me nothing.  I didn’t know to ask for a donor number.  When I was a donor, it was Drs. Fox and Adler, but apparently they went their separate ways at some point. At least 10 or more years ago, long before I heard of DSR I actually spoke with someone from their office.  He seemed to remember me, but refused to give any information.

I have three children through my marriage, and I often think about the others I never knew.  Your site seems to be the only way to try to reach each other.  Thank you for caring enough to do all this.”

Dear Fairfax Cryobank and CLI,

For years, we have been receiving emails from former sperm donors, like this one from today, requesting our help:

“…Can you guide me as to how I’d best get my donor number from Fairfax Cryobank?  I contacted them several times over the past year (once by phone and once with email) but they didn’t respond.”

The Donor Sibling Registry, and many former Fairfax Cryobank/Cryogenic Laboratories (CLI) Sperm Donors would like to request that you release donor numbers to all those donors requesting to know their own donor numbers. We have many former sperm donors who have come to the Donor Sibling Registry wishing to make mutual consent contact with their offspring. Because you continue to refuse to give these men their donor numbers, making contact continues to be difficult. Some of these former donors wish to share medical and genetic information with the families who used their sperm. You are then prohibiting them from making connections that are desired by all parties, as well as prohibiting the sharing of important medical and genetic information.

We ask you publicly to please consider the ethics and potential medical ramifications of keeping donors’ numbers from them. By refusing to return phone calls, respond to their email requests and by refusing to give them their own donor numbers, you are thereby prohibiting them from sharing and updating medical and genetic information.  Please consider the negative affects of deliberately keeping donors from making mutual consent contact with the families that used their sperm and the offspring that desperately want to know their biological fathers, their ancestry, and their medical backgrounds. For some of these families- the sharing and updating of medical information is critical.

Wendy

A DSR member has an important message for all families that have used CLI donor 1368:

To the parents of offspring from Donor 1368:

Donor 1368 has is a carrier of alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency.  This is a condition, not a disease and can be managed, but it needs to be identified so that it is not misdiagnosed or mistreated.  Donor 1368 is Phenotype Pi-MZ, which means that he has one normal gene (M) and one deficient gene (Z), either of which has an equal chance of being passed to his offspring.

For information, go to http://www.alpha-1foundation.org/.  In order to get tested for free (and w/o health ins. knowing) you can participate in a research project at the University of South Carolina .  Go to the website, www.alphaoneregistry.org, email alphaone@musc.edu or call toll free, 1-877-886-2383.  They will send you free test kits with instructions.

It is very important that all offspring from Donor 1368 are tested for the presence of this genetic condition as healthy life style choices are imperative for alpha 1 carriers.  I am the mother of three offspring from Donor 1368 and I am also an alpha 1 carrier. I am an MZ, like the donor. All three of me children received the donor’s Z and mine, making them Pi-ZZ. Despite this, they are doing well.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have for me; I can be contacted through Wendy at the DSR.