Sperm donors online - over the Internet

The internet has revolutionised the way we do many things and perhaps it’s most enduring and significant impact has been on how we communicate with one another. For some single women, it has even changed the way they can get pregnant. The Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority (HFEA) last week announced that it plans to launch an investigation into the legality of websites set up to put women in contact with sperm donors. This follows the recent conviction of two businessmen who acted as “sperm brokers”. They ran a website that couriered fresh samples from donors to women for home insemination.
Most of these websites, however, simply provide a facility for women to make contact with potential donors and the individuals make their own arrangements. But the HFEA claims that the websites are putting women’s health at risk because they are unregulated and there is no official way of screening the donors for sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Instead it is the sole responsibility of the individuals involved to make arrangements to be screened and ensure that the donor is disease free.

In contrast, fertility clinics operate within specific safeguards, which include screening donors prior to donation and storing samples for six months before use to ensure the male donor is negative for HIV. It is therefore true that there is a risk associated with DIY insemination.

But the HFEA’s objections smack of little more than nanny-stateism. I can’t help but feel they are reacting in this way because their nose had been put out of joint at the thought of people taking fertility into their own hands and undermining their authority. They have helped create an industry around getting pregnant and don’t like the idea that there are some aspects of it that they cannot regulate or control.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/cieOSO