[agilord]

Randomizing children at hospitals would likely have big negative impact on society. On the long term, everyone would loose social cohesion because of the lack of bonds between brothers, nieces, whatever.

Families would lose every incentive to have a child in the first place, if it would be randomly switch to another (things like inheritance, family history and lineage comes in my mind). On the other hand, adoption would surely skyrocket.

[sjwright]

> Randomizing children at hospitals would likely have big negative impact on society.

I disagree, and I think the opposite could even be true. We are hard wired to protect our biological offspring; if we know that our offspring will be placed randomly into society, we would have greater reason to concern ourselves with the well-being of society in general.

(All successful modern societies have communistic and capitalistic components in simultaneous operation. Capitalism provides the incentive for productivity and communism ensures that incentives can be acted upon by as many people as possible. The most successful societies are arguably ones that balance these aspects well.)

[yetanotherphd]

That is precisely the prisoner's dilemma. People have some interest in making society better, but not nearly as much interest as they would have had in improving the well being of their biological children.

[nilved]

You don't need biological connection to develop bonds. See adoption, step-children, etc.

[sologoub]

That's an incredibly personal subject. Some people can develop such bonds, others cannot get past the perceived distance. The importance of bloodlines runs very deep in most western societies (I don't know much about other societies, so I won't generalize...), and simply saying it is possible ignores a lot of social stigmas and personal attitudes.

[protomyth]

No, but the biological bond is started while the child is still in the womb. The child is born with a knowledge of the people around the mother from hearing them while in the womb. If I was in the office, I could site some recent studies, but they should be pretty easy to find. Talking into the belly looks dumb, but it is a pretty good idea for the father.

[PeterisP]

The bunch of traditional sayings and tales about stepchildren and stepparents aren't without a basis in reality. You don't neccessarily need biological connection to develop such bonds, but it does have a fairly strong impact and correlation.

[sliverstorm]

A real, tangible problem would be, you don't know your family history so you don't know if you have a higher genetic risk for this or that.

There'd probably also be more inbreeding. Not truckloads, but more, just when chance decided to step in.