Enquirer: Prince Michael and Paris were conceived with anonymous donor

Earlier this week, we heard Michael Jackson’s longterm dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, claim that he was not the father of Jackson’s older children “to the best of my knowledge.”

Klein admitted that he donated sperm to a bank at one point, but insisted that it was not specifically for Jackson’s use. He said he couldn’t go into it much more than that, and a lot of people though his answer was suspicious given the fact that the mother of Prince Michael and Paris, Debbie Rowe, used to work in Klein’s office.

Many of you maintain that the paternity of those children is no one’s business except their own and that we should leave them alone in this difficult time.

Klein did say something on Larry King that seemed to suggest that the children were conceived with donor sperm. He said “I want to tell you that this discussion, however, is between Michael, his children and this person. It’s not to be discussed who the father is over national television.”

The National Enquirer reports this week that Klein is correct and he’s not the father. The father is an anonymous donor who should remain that way:

The two kids are actually the offspring of an anonymous sperm donor chosen by Michael, The Enquirer has learned exclusively.

After painstakingly reviewing dozens of profiles of potential sperm donors, Michael selected “a-good-looking white dentist from [Eastern US State] who had an extremely high I.Q.,” divulged a close family friend.

As for the report that Dr. Klein is the kids’ father, “Michael and Arnie always laughed whenever they heard that old rumor. They joked about it,” said the friend.

In choosing a sperm donor, Michael closely examined family histories, education backgrounds and media and psychiatric records of potential donors to make sure there was no potential for genetic physical or mental problems, revealed the friend.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, July 20, 2009]

Given the two known auto-immune conditions Jackson suffered, lupus and vitiligo, it makes sense that he would chose to use sperm donor because those conditions are genetic and could have been passed on to his children.

Paternity doesn’t make someone a father, and many people think that anonymous sperm and egg donors should stay that way unless they specifically decide to be available to their offspring. This is a complicated legal and ethical issue, and in this case it really seems like something the media should back off on for the sake of those kids. They just lost their dad and they don’t need to hear any of this speculation. They know who their real dad was, and if they want to find out about their biological father it’s something they should decide when they’re older.