Just happened to read a news story pertaining to Bollywood doing the rounds these days - Tushar Kapoor has become a single father through surrogacy.
News articles such as the above and others galore about the growing trend towards assisted embryo fertilization and births through surrogacy. There are many reasons for people turning towards assisted/artificial fertilization and surrogacy. People are getting married late due to greater commitments towards higher education and work, no time to plan a family, low male/female ratio etc.
All this is happening in the Jat community as well which makes one wonder as to what would be the consequence to the Jat gene pool? This is all the more important because the Jat society/race is very closely knit and has a relatively more distinguishable identity separate from the other races in terms of height, built, relatively lesser genetic defects, etc. With the intermingling of genes from other communities/races, would this gene pool remain intact as passed on to us by our forefathers? Would we be able to pass this gene pool which is a heritage from our forefathers intact to our future generations??
With full responsibility and regards to the seriousness of the topic, I thought of a suggestion which would go a long way in keeping the gene pool intact especially for the people from the community who borrow gametes (sperms and/or eggs) from professional donors (of other castes/race). Can we at Jatland start a section where members (and fellow community members who might not be members) can offer their gametes to those from the community needing it. If members want, they can also avoid taking gametes from donors of the same gotras.
I would suggest members could be asked if they would be interested in donating their gametes. If yes, in their profile itself there could be a tag or mention as a prospective donor. Anyone community member (whether member on JL or not) can then contact the prospective donor in full confidentiality through PM.
I am sure if this suggestion actually sees the light of the day will go a long way in ensuring that our gene pool remains intact and that it is not adulterated by genes borrowed from outside (especially from professional donors).