UK: "Sperm bank asks sports fans to lend a hand"

Submitted by Broadsword on Wed, 2010-01-13 00:05

Article here. Excerpt:

'The government is starting a pilot scheme in Manchester this month for a national sperm bank — and will target sports fans as potential donors. Fertility experts at St Mary’s hospital have been given funds to run the pilot scheme, which may lead to a national programme along the lines of the blood donation service.

Daniel Brison, professor of clinical embryology at the hospital’s department of reproductive medicine, said sporting events were a good place to find men who might be inclined to donate sperm.

“Approaching sports fans at football and cricket matches in Manchester is a way of accessing large numbers of men,” he said. “We might also get support from the sports clubs themselves. The idea is to make it easier to donate.”
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The government has been keen to reverse a drop in sperm donations that has led fertility clinics to buy supplies from countries such as Denmark, prompting suggestions that a generation of blonde, blue-eyed British Vikings could be the result.
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The move follows a recommendation from the British Fertility Society that a national programme should be funded by the Department of Health. A spokeswoman for the department said:

“The number of donors is improving in the UK, but there is still a shortage of sperm. We are funding a project which will pilot a model for managing sperm donation, to illustrate ways in which more effective and efficient use of available resources can be made.”'

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Comments

"Lend a hand," ahh hahahhaha! Not.

Paternity reduced to jacking off and handing it over. Next sucker, step right up!

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Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2010-01-13 01:54

if it goes to a single woman. You just killed another man's dream of having a family, so that a narcissistic woman can be a single mom.

If the sperm banks could guarantee that the sperm will only go to married hetro couples who have fertility problems, then I would donate.

Till then, these single women should learn to be polite and caring. Then they could easily find a good husband.

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Submitted by PaulG on Wed, 2010-01-13 04:43

... for men to consider is that by handing the means of producing another child over without even a chance of input to the child's life, and if they cannot be sure it will be going to a loving couple, then the man donating the sperm is allowing a great risk to be taken by circumstance: a child may be born to an unfit mother and in any case, possibly raised without a father,or indeed an unfit couple due to their collective insufficiency as parents. (Merely taking the word of the transfer agency is not sufficient. They have a financial interest in seeing the deal go through.) We already know from numerous studies that a fatherless child, even with a good, caring, financially capable mother, suffers this absence greatly.

Same with a woman donating her eggs, too. This is just reckless and irresponsible. Now, a woman might be a mother-surrogate provided she knows the baby is going to a loving couple-- that may be fine. But anonymous gamete donation is, IMJ, not morally acceptable. Legally: Yes. Morally: No.

Just another freaking opinion.

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2010-01-14 03:12