IVF can currently involve 5 people as it is. Sperm donor, egg donor, surrogate, couple whose child this will be.

This method ups it to 6.

It takes a village...

The kid could also have an organ transplant.

Make the parents field a list without fixed length, ordered by fraction of donor genes. Include exceptions for specific gene identifiers from a different mix of donors.

The default case would therefore be [[0.5 Mom, 0.5 Dad], [mDNA:1.0 Mom]] for girls, and [[0.5 Mom, 0.5 Dad], [mDNA:1.0 Mom], [23X: 1.0 Mom], [23Y: 1.0 Dad]] for boys.

For clones, it would be [[1.0 Nuclear Donor],[mDNA:1.0 Egg Donor]].

For parthenogenesis, it would be [[1.0 Mom]].

For the new UK case, it would be [[0.5 Mom, 0.5 Dad],[mDNA:1.0 Egg Donor],...].

If, for some reason, a cloned baby had the Bt pesticide genes inserted, it would be [[1.0 Nuclear Donor],[mDNA:1.0 Egg Donor],[[Cry1A.105, CryIAb, CryIF, Cry2Ab, Cry3Bb1, Cry34Ab1, Cry35Ab1, mCry3A, VIP]:1.0 Bacillus thuringiensis],...].

The real problem is finding the person to rewrite the Crystal Reports to accommodate the new data structure. Feel sorry for that person.

For most purposes I think two parents would be enough, even if the child was born using more than two parents. Generally the decision to have a child, and the decision to be a family is complicated enough with two people.

A third person to have "rights" over the child can only mess up stuff.

In Australia children are assigned independent legal representation in the Family Law Courts. Australia has taken steps to shift away from parents having rights over children and moving toward children having rights (to be safe, cared for, to see their parents, etc).

I would hazard a guess there is a possibility, down the track, that a court will have to determine whether a child has a right to know from whom her DNA comes.

It will be interesting to see, from the comfort of my arm chair, how this all unfolds over time.

> For most purposes

If only we as software developers could create software for most purposes :(