Bio-Dad

Name: Bio-Dad
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2009-03-21
Duration: 1 h 30 min
Cast: Julian Huxley, Barry Stevens, Jen Dziura

TV Movie
20092009
1h 30m

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Documentary

One of the world's first babies resulting from artificial insemination, Barry Stevens, goes on a complicated quest to find his biological father. His sister Janice joins in the search after ... Read allOne of the world's first babies resulting from artificial insemination, Barry Stevens, goes on a complicated quest to find his biological father. His sister Janice joins in the search after a health issue with possible genetic sources. He interviews fertility doctors, gay parents... Read allOne of the world's first babies resulting from artificial insemination, Barry Stevens, goes on a complicated quest to find his biological father. His sister Janice joins in the search after a health issue with possible genetic sources. He interviews fertility doctors, gay parents, genealogy experts, and finds many lost siblings.

YOUR RATING

Director
- Barry Stevens
Writer
- Barry Stevens
Stars
- Julian Huxley(archive footage)
- Barry Stevens
- Jen Dziura(uncredited)

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Julian Huxley

Self
(archive footage)

Barry Stevens

Self

Jen Dziura

Self
(uncredited)

Lee Silver

Self
(uncredited)

Director
- Barry Stevens
Writer
- Barry Stevens
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia
In 2005, the UK joined Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and Australia, in banning anonymity for donors. In these countries, the number of donors has risen since the policy change. In Canada, anonymity is still optional and selling sperm or eggs is prohibited. In the USA, assisted reproduction is unregulated, 80% of sperm donors are willing to be known. And parents may even chose their child's gender.

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Featured review

9/10

A very very very important documentary

I'm compelled to write this review only because no one else has. I saw this a while back, so it is not fresh in my mind.

In the years since this documentary, there have been two fictional films on the topic: Quebec's "Starbuck (2011)" and USA's remake of Starbuck "Delivery Man (2013)".

We live in a society who's principal religion, beyond the church stuff and faith based philosophies, is growth. Economic growth, technological growth, production growth, and the population growth which permits all of it.

This human obsession with growth is what prevents society from questioning the value and ethics of the assisted reproduction industry. We see what we want to see, we make excuses such as "biology doesn't matter, only love does", or "adoption takes so long", or "fostering is too difficult", or "I just MUST see my genes passed on". None of these stand up to criticism.

This documentary is about one human's hunt for answers. It reflects on the challenges faced by children manufactured this way. It questions the notion that biology does not matter, it questions the risks of siblings meeting and mating, it questions the ethics of the business that provide these services.

This documentary could have been a start to a great ethical discussion in society, but society is not ready to question this. Meanwhile, we're stuck in this path, that too few are questioning. Some countries have banned anonymous donation of gametes, but even without anonymity, there are so many ethical problems with this industry.

It's not an exciting documentary, but it is highly worth watching.

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