Serial Sperm Donor - Irish Times article

[LurkyMcLurkLurk]

Hope I'm linking correctly to this
www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/the-serial-sperm-donor-one-man-hundreds-of-children-and-a-burning-question-why-1.4476178#.YCHGtwQuxhw.mailto

Between private sperm donor arrangements and fertility clinics the guy who is the main focus of this article admits to approximately 250 children. Others in the article could have over 800! I am horrified. These guys claim that they are looking to "help parents with realising their dream", but to me this is massively narcissistic. How could there have been so little safeguarding between clinics? Did it not occur to anybody that some men would want to father as many children as possible?

There is not enough regulation in place, especially in America.

Rizzo’s children, ages 7 and 6, were at the center of one of the most ethically complex legal cases in the modern-day fertility industry.

Three years ago, while researching treatment options for her sons, Rizzo says she made an extraordinary discovery: The boys are part of an autism cluster involving at least a dozen children scattered across the United States, Canada and Europe, all conceived with sperm from the same donor. Many of the children have secondary diagnoses of ADHD, dyslexia, mood disorders, epilepsy and other developmental and learning disabilities.

[...]

A quick online search for the donor’s profile showed that sperm from a man matching his description was still being sold by at least four companies. She called them all, asking for information about his medical history — and to inform them of the autism cluster — but she says the representatives she reached told her she didn’t have any “evidence” that his sperm was responsible for the autism cases.

www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-children-of-donor-h898/2019/09/14/dcc191d8-86da-11e9-a491-25df61c78dc4_story.html

Not the first time.

Reading the news etc and of course namalt. But all the stuff. The older I get the more I think wtf is wrong with men.

@PotholeParadies - thanks for sharing. I probably shouldn't be but I'm shocked that there was no genetic screening in that case. And then not to remove him from the books when they learned there were potential issues genetically and that he had lied about his background! I'm guessing doing so could have been seen as an admission of liability?

I don't know how they justify it. I wonder how many women purchasing semen from businesses like it realised donors weren't screened for health conditions?

I suspect they thought the medical history of donors was scrutinised.

I think some men like the idea of populating the world with their (superior) genes. Proving they are the ultimate alpha male. And there's a helping of misogyny in there too. I don't think many, if any, of these men are doing this out of kindness.

Also, I'm afraid many women using sperm donors, especially privately, are woefully ill informed and overly trusting.
The donor conception board on Mumsnet is a bit of an eye opener.

This is an interesting podcast with thoughtful discussion of some of the problems associated with multiple sperm donation.

"We're kicking off the new year with an exciting new episode of Venus Rising! Join us as we sit down with Gail Pascoe, an Australian woman who has spent the last six years researching the cash-driven sperm donation industry and the many ways it is failing donor-conceived children. Gail's interest in the subject began when she made what she considers the appalling discovery that her own daughter, conceived with the help of a US based sperm donor, has over 100 siblings. Since that time, Gail has worked tirelessly to shed light on the bioethical issues too many ignore in third party reproductive efforts, especially as they relate to the needs of the children born of these arrangements. Her quest to help others avoid similar pitfalls and achieve healthier outcomes for children has led her to write a detailed end-to-end guide book, which is in the final stages of completion. We are grateful for Gail's insight and front row perspective on a sensitive issue that affects thousands of people. You can follow her work at donorconceptionandbeyond.com.au/ and follow her on social media with the following links: www.facebook.com/donorconceptionandbeyond and www.instagram.com/donorconceptionandbeyond/. "

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/venus-rising/id1481872967?i=1000504426235

Wow that’s shocking. I know someone who was a sperm donor. They said they did it for altruistic reasons but part of it must be that they like the idea of procreating. Although in my friend’s case they were limited to a few families (maybe 6-7 if I recall correctly) and they had lots of different health screenings.

Also trust in clinics to screen donors can be misplaced. And even with the best intentions of the clinic, not all donors are honest.

https://www.heyreprotech.com/p/is-it-fraud-when-you-sell-bad-sperm?r=3qvki&utmcampaign=post&utmmmedium=email&utmsource=copy

That’s a really good article, thanks OP.

Quote from the link below:

“In an email, Mr. Meijer said he did not recall being told that he was barred from donating at other clinics: “Clinics did intensive health and genetics screening and interviewing and I passed them all but I do not remember this procedure clearly to say anything about it.” In a second email he said, “There were no strict agreements amongst sperm banks (up until recently) to check if donors hadn’t been donating elsewhere.”

Reached for comment, Peter Reeslev, the chief executive of Cryos, insisted that a Cryos donor could not have signed up without being aware of the exclusivity clause. “NO,” he wrote in an email. “Donors sign and commit in contractual terms to not donate in any other tissue establishments than Cryos before and undertake not to donate sperm to other sperm banks/tissue centers in the future as well.”

He added, “On a general level, Cryos disassociates itself from any form of serial sperm donation due to the importance of not exceeding national pregnancy quotas” in each country to which they send sperm.”

So he doesn’t remember what he signed and he goes on to say he has warm feelings about the children he has created, though he can’t possibly have even met half of them so the 'warm feelings' are probably about spreading his seed not actually about the children created.

Even when regulated women will seek out sperm ‘off grid’ and there you can also find prolific sperm donors. Simon Watson is named in the article and his name has come up on the donor conceived board.

The article concludes with a mother saying she doesn’t know how she will tell her son and whilst I do blame these men for being entirely irresponsible with their DNA the mothers are to blame too if they are going off grid and trusting too easily. If they go through a clinic there should be tests on the sperm to match the DNA to a global register to flag up multiple use of the DNA.

ART has a lot to answer for. It’s difficult to know how this will end and what the true impact on the children will be.

There’s no way these men are being honest about what they get up to.

www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/health/sperm-donor-fertility-meijer.html?fbclid=IwAR0cVwdBcrfM5aJDgjI7ivYrDQ-i3Ajq9EscjGpa1KzQqvSxhFXn3ICK4MY

I can't believe that this still happens.
I first heard about this sort of thing in the 90s when an American fertility dr was found to have been disposing of husbands sprem and instead used his own to fertilise the wife's egg without anyone's knowledge or consent. This dr had done this to hundreds of couples and when it came out not only had this dr not broken any laws but the parents were told that there only recourse was to try to sue him for consumer fraud .
How can these things still be legal nearly 30 years later 🤬

The older I get the more I think wtf is wrong with men...

Join the (fucking huge) club.

Am I the only one who suspects that these men have never had actual ex with an actual woman?

"Ex" is like sex but doesn't last as long.

I first heard about this sort of thing in the 90s when an American fertility dr was found to have been disposing of husbands sprem and instead used his own to fertilise the wife's egg without anyone's knowledge or consent.

There's a very similar story in Europe, with a doctor called Karbaat. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-immaculate-deception/id1501210104 . The scary thing about having serial donors is how accidental cosanguination can occur, especially if it all occurs in a small region in a country.

Am I the only one who suspects that these men have never had actual ex with an actual woman?

Well do you count the offer of 'natural insemination'? As far as I can tell some men use sites like Pollen Tree and sperm donor Facebook groups as hook up sites, I suppose it's the condom free version of Tinder.

I the film "Anonymous Father's Day" a man who has 500-1,000 half siblings says "secrets are like land mines"

Aren't there implications for these children meeting up and conceiving?

Sorry if this has been already mooted.

Three years ago, while researching treatment options for her sons, Rizzo says she made an extraordinary discovery: The boys are part of an autism cluster involving at least a dozen children scattered across the United States, Canada and Europe, all conceived with sperm from the same donor. Many of the children have secondary diagnoses of ADHD, dyslexia, mood disorders, epilepsy and other developmental and learning disabilities.

That’s fascinating!!

Aren't there implications for these children meeting up and conceiving?

Yes of course. If they are both donor conceived through a registered donor they can at least find out their genetic father before trying for a baby themselves. Imagine the trauma of finding out you're in love and in a relationship with a half-sibling, or worse, having a miscarriage and finding out it's because you are related.

An anecdote. A friend told me a story about how one man went about having unprotected sex in the short time he was out of prison. He stayed in one area so the children born (I think it was 12-20, sorry I forget the exact number) all ended up at the same primary school.

Even without the close proximity of potentially finding your future sexual partner in your home town there is unending possibilities with travel and with very prolific donors it's entirely feasible that several sexual relationships between siblings has already happened without anyone knowing about it. It's not common practice to test your partners DNA before consummating your relationship or having a one night stand.

@prisencolinensinainciusol2

Aren't there implications for these children meeting up and conceiving?

Sorry if this has been already mooted.

My thoughts too, they wouldn’t even know.

I read something once about people who are genetically related not knowing they are being more likely to be sexually attracted to one another because of their similarities, so it’s worse than chance. It was an article ages ago, maybe late 90s. I’m off to google.

It comes up more in relation to adoptees separated at birth, but seems to be a recognised phenomenon ‘genetic sexual attraction’. Lots of legit adoption resources came up, but here’s an example that explains the underlying theory: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/genetic-sexual-attraction-husband-and-wife-discover-they-are-brother-and-sister-9653274.html