British Expatriate Network

This BBC article

(which led to this article)

got me thinking about the whole sperm donor thing.

We now have the first generation of sperm donor babies reaching adulthood and seeking out their biological fathers. Laws have been changed to allow them to do so -partly for psychological reasons, partly for generic information reasons, as far as I can tell -that's a whole topic and a half in itself...

...but the thing I was wondering about is avoiding bonking a sibling. :shock: How do the authorities ensure this doesn't happen? Should parents be made to tell their children their father was a professional wanker? Should it be a legal requirement that you declare your random parentage to a potential sexual partner?

What about the children who are never told they are the result of a sperm donation, or fail to find out anything about the donor -how are they to avoid one another? there is evidence that people are attracted to members of the opposite sex who have similar facila characteristics to their own (no proof, but some evidence). Wouldn't this increase the likelihood of unknown siblings being attracted to one another?

Are there safeguards in place? Is each donor only allowed to be used once in each city/state?

On a related note I read a great book called The Genius Factory by David Plotz about an intentional collection of Nobel Prize winners sperm to make genius babies. You can read very good excerpts and wrap-ups at Slate -

http//www.slate.com/id/2119998/
http//www.slate.com/id/2119808/

I do know that a history of the sperm donor is required including the medical history of their parents. That'd ween out some chance of being related I suppose.

As for telling the child where it originated from - I think it's morally right to just be honest. It surely would have to come up at some point right? But then I don't have kids yet so I've never had to make a choice about being brutally honest (ie - there is no Santa Claus so don't get your hopes up kid/I'm sorry to tell you this son but your mother's an American....) or just letting it go for the sake of letting things be. Gimme 6 months and we'll see what happens.

What about follow-up, if a donor developes an hereditory illness after the deed is done?

Just tell them he was a handyman.

Sure... but what if you get some Paris Hilton type being the mama? Wouldn't that counteract the genius sperm?

Wasn't there a Woody Allen film about this kind of thing?