For most of us answering questions about our family is easy. However, for some children ,the best answer they can give to questions like “How many siblings do you have?” is “I don’t know.” These children are the offspring of anonymous sperm donors, conceived through artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization. No one knows, because of the secrecy surrounding sperm donation, but there could be as many as 60,000 children conceived through anonymous sperm donation every year.[1]
Artificial insemination dates back to at least the late 19th century, when a woman was artificially inseminated under anesthesia with the doctor's sperm. She was never told. More recently, a British doctor running a fertility clinic in the 1940s may have fathered as many as 600 of the children conceived there.[2]
In the United States, sperm donation is largely unregulated. Guidelines from the professional organization, ASRM, "suggest" limiting donations to 25 births per donor, but also protect their confidentiality.[3] A sperm donor could travel from clinic to clinic, skirting the guidelines. One frequently requested sperm donor now has at least 150 known offspring.[4]
The real losers in this scenario are the children who are conceived through an anonymous donor. They are left with unanswered questions related to their ancestry, genetics, and medical history, a kind of "genetic bewilderment." Many donor offspring are bothered by the circumstances of their conception, often confused about who their “real” family is, and “feel sad” when they observe friends with their biological parents.[5]
There's also a very real risk of incest. One survey found that almost half of the children are worried that they may be romantically attracted to someone they are unknowingly related to. [6] Given the large number of offspring a single donor can father, concerns about romantic involvement with a half-sibling are justified, especially for offspring living in smaller communities where many women rely on the same sperm bank. The Donor Sibling Registry, a service to help donor offspring find half-siblings or their donor parents, has uncovered several donors who have conceived 50 or more offspring.[7]
In addition to the unsettling possibility that donor offspring may look at strangers to see if they "look like me," is their unknown genetic inheritance. Most sperm donors are young, and are tested only for contagious diseases, not genetic conditions that might surface later. Thus, they could pass along serious problems to many unsuspecting recipients. One man passed along a heart disease gene to nine of 24 offspring, including a two-year-old who died.[8] Genetic abnormalities can be passed along to many more children than could happen for those conceived by a husband and wife "the old fashioned way."
These are only a few of the ethical issues related to anonymous sperm donation. Something that seems good to parents, may be deeply harmful to their children. The path paved by this technology could lead to heartache, not happiness. Think about it.
[1] Jacqueline Mroz, “One Sperm Donor, 150 Offspring,” New York Times, September 5, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06donor.html?pagewanted=all (accessed August 24th, 2012). Cf. Elizabeth Marquardt, Norval D. Glenn, and Karen Clark, My Daddy’s Name is Donor: A New Study of Young Adults Conceived Through Sperm Donation (New York: Institute for American Values, 2010), 5.
[2] Rebecca Smith, "British man 'fathered 600 children' at his own fertility clinic," The Telegraph, April 8, 2012, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9193014/British-man-fathered-600-children-at-own-fertility-clinic.html (accessed September 14, 2012).
[3] Practice Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, 2008 Guidelines for gamete and embryo donation: a Practice Committee report, http://www.asrm.org/uploadedFiles/ASRM_Content/News_and_Publications/Practice_Guidelines/Guidelines_and_Minimum_Standards/2008_Guidelines_for_gamete(1).pdf (accessed September 14, 2012).
[4] Mroz.
[5] Marquardt, 7-14.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Mroz,.
[8] Courtney Hutchison, "Sperm Donor 'Super Dads'--Why It's Dangerous for One Donor to Sire Dozens," ABC News, September 6, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/09/06/sperm-donor-super-dads-why-its-dangerous-for-one-donor-to-sire-dozens/ (accessed September 14, 2012).