Wendy Kramer Wins Anonymous Sperm Donor’s Second Turd Award
This is Elizabeth Marquardt’s original paper: My Daddy’s Name is Donor. Wendy Kramer claimed that Elizabeth Marquardt’s paper engaged in “misrepresentation” of its own data. Next she questions “why ethical review for this study was not obtained.” Wendy (together with “Professor” Eric Blyth) earns her turd for pseudo-academic pretentiousness and turgid prose with use of passive voice:
- Professor Eric Blyth and Wendy Kramer’s critical article about this paper: “My Daddy’s Name is Donor”: Read with Caution.
- Elizabeth Marquardt’s response: Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?.
Wendy Kramer, mother of Ryan, a donor conceived child, is the founder of the Donor Sibling Registry. Wendy earns her turd by listing herself as an author of academic research papers, papers which are in fact nothing more than data analysis of survey responses from subscribers of her own Donor Sibling Registry. (In every single one of these papers, the participants are self-selected respondents to a survey, members and supporters of a non-profit organization that she controls.) The DSR, run by Wendy and her son Ryan, pays Wendy’s salary and expenses so that she can act as a full-time advocate for donor-conceived children.
Something smells like turd when Wendy tries an academic slam on Elizabeth Marquardt. Wendy even tries to play an “ethics card” by claiming that Elizabeth Marquardt’s research should have been approved by a university research committee.
- Does Wendy Kramer understand the difference between advocacy and academic research?
- Does Wendy Kramer really believe that the papers she has “co-authored” with various researchers are serious academic research?
Wendy obviously cannot handle the possibility that donor conceived children such as Elizabeth Marquardt may want to speak for themselves, rather than have a mommy speak for them. Wendy poses as an academic researcher and uses her nonprofit organization and the name recognition she has achieved to slam another legitimate advocate for the donor conceived.
Remark: And who is “Professor” Eric Blyth. It’s rare to see this honorific title spelled out as it was in BioNews, in a way that’s obviously intended to suggest that the person who is writing actually knows something. Indeed, it sounds silly. Anonymous Sperm Donor googled Mr. Professor Blyth and found that he is “Professor of Social Work” at the University of Hudderfield in the United Kingdom. It’s so rare that university professors use their titles this way, especially when they publish an editorial.
Turd awards: Anonymous Sperm Donor welcomes the expression of diverse opinions about anonymous sperm donation and assisted reproduction issues in general. Turd awards are reserved only for those who speak from the wrong end of the digestive tract. Examples are those who shamelessly exploit the public arena, and know-nothings who believe that they are know-somethings.
