Sperm donations from dead men should be allowed

Exactly @TheLidoOfThighs. I know many women - single and in couples - who have used donated sperm. There is issue in getting hold of it.

Tbh, the more I think about it (with this and the surrogacy thread), the more I think that those who warned of a "slippery slope" wrt ivf were actually right all along

I was one; and I was right.

The Diane Blood case was awful.

Also, isn't it funny how men, who can donate their sperm so easily without any fuss, bother, medical intervention or risk to their health...aren't doing it in sufficient numbers, yet women are risking their bodies and lives to be egg donors and surrogate mothers because we must be altruistic

That is a completely irrelevant point. Egg donors are often donors because they use it as a quid pro quo of their own infertility treatment. Men have as much right to refuse to donate sperm as I have to refuse to donate eggs, whether inter vivos or dead.

The idea that sperm can be treated as the same as organ donation is awful. I have always said that no reproductive organs or tissue can be taken from me, even for research.

I’m really puzzled by the repeated assertions about a shortage of sperm donors. The numbers did drop after anonymity was (quite rightly) lifted. But having been through the process of using donor sperm, it’s there. Some people choose it from the US or Denmark because they provide more information about the donors, but if any of you wanted a vial of British sperm tomorrow, you could search an online system and buy one (for treatment via a clinic). And that presupposes that you particularly want British sperm.

Also only 4% of donors (at least at London Sperm Bank) are accepted, so many more men are coming forward to donate than are actually able to.

The sperm bank referred to in the article failed because it had a bonkers business model - as the additional article linked to from that one explains.

I agree it shouldn’t be taken from dead people, btw.

Oh no, that’s all kinds of wrong. Are they going to start harvesting eggs as well? Where does it end?

So after years of anonymous sperm donation, the rules were changed. Why? For the benefit of donor conceived children, so they could trace their biological fathers. How is using dead man's sperm a benefit to the donor conceived children? And obviously if the dead man had actually wanted to donate while he was alive, nothing was stopping him.

It used to be relatives couldn’t veto express permission (such as carrying a donor card/being signed up to the opt in register) but I don’t know how it would work with presumed consent!

Besides anything else, after death, the final say so is with the deceased’s next of kin

This is, I believe, by convention rather than by actual law. Next of kin have few rights in the UK.

Seems like a lot of single women benefit.

That doesn't make it automatically good.

The only question which matters is this: is it good for the child? Anonymity was lifted because it is in the best interests of the child to be able to know who their father was.

Tbh, the more I think about it (with this and the surrogacy thread), the more I think that those who warned of a "slippery slope" wrt ivf were actually right all along. And no, before anyone asks, I'm not in a position of privilege here - I don't have any children.

I dunno, but instinctively I feel ‘a kind man made a conscious decision to help mummy become a mummy and you have the option of finding out more about him when you turn 18’ is a lot less likely to fuck you up than ‘when a man died they harvested his organs and sperm because he didn’t visit the opt out website, wasn’t mummy lucky?’

Besides anything else, after death, the final say so is with the deceased’s next of kin, so imagine how the bereaved donor ‘grandparents’ might feel/behave, knowing there might be a living, breathing, genetic connection to your lost loved one out there, somewhere? A child that only exists because you signed the final forms?

I just cannot see a positive reason why someone would be happy to donate sperm after death, but not in life?
I can see some negatives though (‘it won’t affect me, I’ll be dead!’ and ‘definitely won’t have to be financially responsible, even if the law changes!’)

deydododatdodontdeydo shouldn't the issues for the potential child be put before any of the adults, as they would rightly be in adoption decisions?

Also what happened to "do no harm" as the guiding principle in medicine?

People are nuts if they think presumed consent was going to be left just to organs

I'll be opting out. I'm hugely against presumed consent. It's a terrifying erosion of freedom. I've commented on this several times on aibu and am always shot down in flames as people wail about all the lives which could be saved.

If anything we should be discouraging people from procreating

Quite. The planet is ridiculously over populated thanks to the old fashioned way of procreating. There is no need to come up with these grotesque ways of creating humans.

Pandemic? I'm praying for the asteroid and I'm an atheist.
Seriously this whole idea is just repugnant.

It's slightly macabre to take from the dead without consent, but some of the reactions here are a bit confusing.
Conceiving via sperm donation is very often recommended to single women on mumsnet as a way of having children if they have no suitable partner.
Who benefits from sperm donation most? Women or couples? Seems like a lot of single women benefit.

Just been hearing about this on lbc. It's ethically so wrong and disturbing.

Imagine being a child to a single mother and having to rationalise that your mum couldn't find a partner to be your dad, she couldn't even find a sperm donor as you might try and find them, so she got the sperm of a dead man so that you would never be able to bother them.

I really think we need to be moving away from chemistry lab babies and moving towards a society that enforces the values of a traditional family and having real living human parents that are present in your life. Yes that doesn't always work out - but that should be the basis we start on.

it should be about a campaign to encourage more men to donate not getting it from dead ones!

Why on Earth should people be encouraged to part with their genetic material to procreate when the planet is already over-populated? If anything we should be discouraging people from procreating.

This is grim.

My granda was a world war 1 posthumous baby and it fucked him right up and that’s despite knowing that his da would’ve loved to have been there to raise him if he wasn’t dead in a trench.

Organ donation doesn’t automatically grant the recipient the right to know the name of the donor or provide a method of contacting their family. These days, less than £100 and a cheek swab will match you to all sorts of relatives via genealogy sites such as 23 and me. This could open up all sorts of family problems down the line.

No one ever thinks of the kids (or their unknown siblings) do they? Like, I realise a lack of empathy is useful for some types of medical specialism but this is most definitely not one of them.

Disgusting is the kindest word I can use. It's so so wrong.

@Gertrudesgarden

I'm increasingly struggling with the knowledge that highly educated people cannot grasp simple common sense. Not just on this subject, but many others. Bring on the pandemic.

There is definitely a shortage of donors since anonymity was lifted but agree it should be about a campaign to encourage more men to donate not getting it from dead ones!

I think sperm is so easily come by (if you'll pardon the expression) during life, that this is not necessary. Perhaps if there is a shortage of donors there should be a campaign, or incentives, but there is no need at all to do this.

We really do need a nice, deadly pandemic of something to wipe humans off the earth. Said it before, will say it again. We suck.

This bothers me, too. Imagine the conversation with the child as they get older. And it's not like donating sperm when alive is particularly difficult, why would donors want to wait until they are dead?

Are sperm donors paid? Will the estate of a dead person used this way be paid for their sperm? In which case, surely all organs should be paid for? Burke and Hare indeed.