Would You Get Your Sperm On The Black Market?
Posted by: Ami Angelowicz
Filed in:
news
12:40PM, Tuesday October 20th 2009
There’s a disturbing new trend out there in the world of sperm donation. Donors and recipients alike are giving and receiving sperm on the black market. Yes, folks … it’s a spunk rush. But it’s hardly about monetary gain, which makes it all the more strange. Basically, there’s a new kind of sperm donor popping up who just wants to help single ladies, lesbians and infertile couples make babies, since a vial of sperm and insemination by a doctor can cost about $2,000 a pop. These seemingly altruistic dudes with plenty o’ sperm to spare are offering their seed for free on sites, like Craigslist.
This begs the question … is getting free sperm on Craigslist or other sites safe? FDA-regulated sperm banks do a few important things like STD tests, background checks, psychological evaluations and medical histories before incubating approved sperm for six months to make sure it’s safe. Also, most sperm bank donors sign away their contractual rights to parenthood as soon as they spooge into a tube.
While it’s great that there are men who want to help inseminate women (some even offer to have sex instead of sending a test tube … how kind!), this scares me because there is no way to guarantee what kind of sperm you’re gonna get. And are these men going to want to play papa in ten years? As I see it, there are only a few types of dudes who would even consider becoming a rogue sperm donor: sperm bank rejects (which means there is probably a reason you shouldn’t take the fruit of their loins), thinly veiled male prostitutes (gross and no thanks), or maybe they are just anti-establishment guys with good intentions (rare). So what do you think: Would you ever get your sperm on the black market? [Double X]
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Jillybean
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 11:55 am: [report]
No. Intelligence is something I rate highly in a partner and anyone donating for free what you can get paid for either *can’t* donate for some reason or is an idiot. I don’t buy the altruism gambit.
I seem to be getting awfully cynical in my old age.
LilMissSunshine
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 11:56 am: [report]
You forgot one kind dumb and young. I had a friend who was in her forties and wanted to become a mom. She met this young handsome but kinda dumb guy except no website was involved. She said she wanted to get pregnant. Made him get tested before she slept with him. And then had him sign away parental rights. He didn’t want to parent but had no problem having his DNA out there.
I’m wouldn’t really say this is a black market but just doing things the old-fashioned way.
NomChompsky
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 12:00 pm: [report]
If by the title of this post, you mean my oft-used euphemism for trolling the gay bookstore in Harlem, then my answer is “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
spatula
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 12:06 pm: [report]
I’m gonna say no. I did, however, buy some birth control over the Internet once, from India.
SouthOC
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 12:07 pm: [report]
Next question…
bethlynn00
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 12:41 pm: [report]
Well, I’ve had sex with guys I’ve met on-line, so in a way, I guess I have gotten sperm that way, but it wasn’t to make a baby…so is the Internet the new black market, or is that label for Craigslist?
Lexington
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 01:27 pm: [report]
Haha, it’s wrong how entertained I am by this. I feel like if you really wanted sperm for free, it would be one of those things you’d just ask a friend for? I feel like I know guys who’d oblige. It doesn’t mean I do, but still.
amorsalado
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 02:18 pm: [report]
I know the inside of the fertility clinic far more intimately than I wish I did, and there’s no way in hell I’d get a sperm donation from some fool on Craigslist.
I know all of the stuff they test for BEFORE allowing a man to even donate—STDs, genetic issues like cystic fibrosis, immune issues, drug use, etc. etc. Even after having cleared all of that, it’s not a given that they’ll accept the donation. There has to be a certain amount of surviving sperm post wash; their morphology has to be absolutely perfect; they have to have the correct motility.
Bad bad idea.
Oreo
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 04:52 pm: [report]
I doubt that any man would use this as a way to meet women or to become an actively involved father, but it isn’t too far fetched to believe that a guy would get an ego charge out of knowing that there are several women around the world who are carrying his baby, or that his offspring will be popping up around the country.
Even if it were less “sinister” than that, I could see it as a move for personal fulfillment for someone who doesn’t think that they’ll be able to have children in a traditional relationship (poor self esteem, workaholic, social issues, etc). Or it could be an anti-establishment type who doesn’t like the idea that men get paid next to nothing for their sperm while women have to shell out thousands of dollars to purchase it; cut out the middle man.
At any rate, there are far worse behaviors from men than undocumented sperm donation. Providing that all safety, health and legal precautions are taken, it seems harmless.
effing hickster
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 09:00 pm: [report]
The most obvious reason the Craigslist guy tried the artificial insemination route? Because the nude art model found out he couldn’t paint his way out of a paper bag, and ran when he wanted to “fluff her boobs” for the portrait.
ml66uk
wrote on October 21 2009 @ 06:03 am: [report]
It’s hardly a “disturbing” trend. What is disturbing is that so many recipients are prepared to have children using the DNA of a man they’ve never even met, and who their children won’t be able to meet till they’re 18, if at all. (Anonymous donation has been banned in several countries btw, but is still common in the USA).
Actually, that’s not strange at all. Many donor-conceived people find it offensive that one of their genetic parents was paid to donate, and that gamete donation is a commercial operation. Some countries, including Canada and the UK have actually banned payment for donor gametes.
It’s not like you can trust the sperm banks to give accurate updated medical information either. Most of them are basically only interested in making money, and once they’re not going to get any more of that, they don’t want to know you any more. Google “the truth about donor 1084” for some of the worst stories involving US sperm banks. They have almost zero regulation, and that’s just the way they like it.
Many recipients want to meet the donor before they go ahead, so that they know what he’s really like, rather than how the sperm bank describe him, based on his description of himself. They might want updated medical information later on, which you simply can’t get from most US sperm banks, and they often want their children to know who he is while they’re growing up.
Many private sperm donors have previously donated at sperm banks, and there are a lot more “guys with good intentions” then you’d think, several of them very intelligent. Some donors also want to know who they’re donating to, rather than having their DNA up for sale to anyone who has the money.
It’s hardly new either; lesbian couples in particular have been doing this for decades. The only thing new about it is the internet. There are dozens of online groups, and hundreds of children born a year using them.
The largest such group is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freespermdonors
Dove
wrote on November 16 2009 @ 08:27 am: [report]
Such judge from people who have no idea what they are talking about.
There is some info that many people lack about this subject. Frozen sperm from the banks are not as safe, well screened or as effective as people believe. Sperm banks are in it for the money not my or my child’s future. Yes, there are regulations but how can regulations stop donors who are motivated by the pay out to lie on applications? Also, frozen sperm is less effective. Oh, the bank will say it is fine but there are serious drawbacks. I could go on an on about all the extra complications frozen sperm causes in the conception process. The biggest one is it dies after 24 hours in the uterus. Seems like a long time? Wrong! Fresh sperm lives for 3 to 7 days in the uterus and the egg, once ovulated is only good for fertilization for 10 hours. Pinpointing ovulation is incredibly difficult without forcing your own time-line with fertility drugs. Fertility drugs carry varied and sometimes unknown risks to the parent and the baby(s). I know some one is going to think “what about ovulation predictor kits?” They only predict the hormone surge prior to ovulation. Depending on the cycle this could be 24 to 48 hours before an actual egg is ovulated. 48 hours…see how that 24hr sperm life span can be an issue now?
I have found a known donor and inseminated with donor sperm found on craigslist. I have the money for sperm banks, though I’m not rich by a long shot, and have tried to conceive that way before. I screened my craigslist donor both physically and mentally. I spent a few months getting to know him and paid for a full STD panel. My partner, a mental health professional, did a psychiatric evaluation on the guy. Is it perfectly safe? No. I’m taking a risk physically and legally. However, it is a calculated risk. He could be lying to us but the donor profile from the sperm bank we used could be complete fiction too. The banks don’t call the guy’s mom to find out if grandpa really died of old age or if he was just a raging alcoholic who died of liver damage. I take this a risk, both the sperm bank way and the craigslist way, because this is the only way I’m going to be a parent. (Adoption is not an option for my partner and I, for various private reasons.) I do the best I can to be as careful as I can. It is more intentional than the way many people have kids, I can say that much!
As a general rule: don’t judge something when you’ve only read a tiny three paragraph blurb about it. (Come on people! It isn’t even an article! It is on an entertainment website!) Question, research, ask people actually living this experience before you jump to conclusions about the how and why of it.