1469: A Nut Too Many

[Keith]

"Listen, I think I would know what you do in your sleep better than you, because I’m awake."


Louis Katz

[Sashi]

To me, that's like saying using a condom is selfish 'cause other people can take it out of the trash and use the sperm to impregnate themselves. Either way, the sperm isn't suppose to be traced back to you. You give the sperm and you're out. You're not donating sperm to make a child.

[starscream]

Of course it was selfish. But selfish shouldn't be such an automatically negative term. It's the motivation for pretty much everything.

[WittyReference]

I still can't get past the point that surely this guy should be anonymous and untraceable by whoever bought his sperm and whoever they made with it?

NOW HE HAS A FUCKING TV SHOW ABOUT IT! What the shit?

[Strawdog]

Originally Posted by Sashi

You give the sperm and you're out. You're not donating sperm to make a child.

That's what the process was orginally made for though, it just got transformed (pretty much as soon as it became possible) into a way to get money quick.

The fact is that you should know that when you donate, your sperm might possibly be used to impregnate someone and there will be a child out there made up of 50% your DNA. While this shouldn't mean they can contact you we shouldn't gloss over the fact that that's the whole reason the service exists.

As for people thinking it's anonymous, any reputable agency keeps your details on file. Your name, height, weight, skin colour, hair colour etc. is all on file somewhere because when the women/couples browse for the donor they want to pick they will need these details or else you might end up with a hideous child (a black albino ginger for example). It also allows them to find your donation should you return to them down the line and tell them you just found out you've got a congenital disease that could affect any offspring.
The agency isn't supposed to release any details that would allow the child to track you down (your name is also kept from the parents) but you've got to realise that it's just people trying to make a wage working at these places and the right amount of money in the right palms will grant you access to information you shouldn't have.

[pmbailey]

Originally Posted by starscream

Of course it was selfish. But selfish shouldn't be such an automatically negative term. It's the motivation for pretty much everything.

Can't agree more. It seems like the only people who are getting screwed (no pun) are the kids. The donor makes money, the mother gets the sperm, the lab makes money from the mom. It's like a win, win, win situation, but then just cross your fingers that the kids are ok, and don't go fucking one of their half-siblings later in life.

[pmbailey]

Originally Posted by WittyReference

NOW HE HAS A FUCKING TV SHOW ABOUT IT! What the shit?

It was probably a casting call in his area... Once he told the producers he had donated 50 times, they probably said "Let's make it 70, and sign here please". That signature was probably all they needed to make this show happen. I don't think most donors end up with this problem.

[whatotherway]

Or is it the question of being successful?

He might not have much money, he might be in a crap job, but in the biological sense, he is successful, because he has many children, and if more of those children have children themselves, then his genes are spread wider and wider. Listening to him, it makes you wonder about the acceptance criteria for sperm.

Some years ago, there was a documentary on sperm donors in different countries and it some the questions they filled out in different places before their sperm was accepted.

One country, they wanted to know how rich, successful you were, if you made the money yourself of if it was inherited, your college/university degrees, your job title, and they even administrated an IQ test. They didn't reject people who fell below a certain IQ, but they did put this information on each packet of sperm, and the women who got the donations, were very careful in selecting who they wanted to father their children.

If I remember correctly, they ended up throwing away a lot of unused packets, when they reached their used by dates, and most of them were for blue collar/lower IQ men.

Contrast that with when I was young living in the US and almost did a sperm donation, and found myself surrounded by addicts and drunks all eager for their $30, with no questions asked. I spoke to some before I decided to not bother, and they told me they went from the sperm bank to the blood bank on a regular basis, to keep themselves in drugs.

What a way to live, anaemic and drained... in every way possible.

[DWarrior]

He inspired me to seriously consider doing it. As Keith once said, I didn't know you could buy stuff with cum!

[pmbailey]

Listening again to all the ideas thrown around about identifying the father at birth. I think this is a great idea, like Chemda said for a lot of possible reasons (sickness, etc later in life). But I think it probably should still be up to the woman weather or not to tell her current partner, or chase down the real dad for child support. But I think the biological father (if it can be identified from DNA) should be listed on the birth certificate.

I don't think the woman should be able to just name the father on the birth certificate. It should either be "Unknown" or "N/A" or the real father -- not just some name the woman pulls out of her ass that she wants as the father.

Also I think the kids should know from as soon as possible that the "father" they live with is not their real father. But I don't know how you'd go about enforcing that. You obviously can't really bring it up until the kid is old enough to understand where babies come from.

But it's really not fair to the kids if they are raised their whole life thinking one person is their father, only to find out in their 20's (or later) that is not their real father. I could see where that could fuck up some kids, finding out that information so late in life.