Women should not turn to sex with sperm donors to have a baby

TV show ‘This Morning’ recently discussed women turning to sex with sperm donors in order to have a baby. Sally Windsor joined Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on the sofa on Thursday and said more and more women are turning to websites where men offer natural insemination, as they believe they have a better chance of conceiving. Sally explained that she herself once considered using the websites as she wanted to have a baby. She said: "As woman we can do this if we want to, there's no more of this idea of sitting back and waiting to become parents - that's a little bit archaic. "We can take things into our own hands. If a woman wants to become a mother and they haven't met the right person, there's no sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. ‘Sperm banks are inaccessible and these are the lengths women are going to.’ said Sally Windsor Also joining in on the debate was Kelly Rose Bradford who argued that women should never resort to sperm donor websites, as it's not fair on the child. "(The websites are) bringing conceptions and starting a family down to scouring the internet for sperm," she said. Kelly Rose also highlighted the safety risks involved in using the sperm donor websites. "I would question why these men are offering these services, it's almost like it's just some kind of sexual gratification for them." "It's very different to have a plan in place and go into this situation which could potentially put your health at risk, could potentially put your life at risk, because you don't know who you are meeting." Erika co-founder of Pride Angel says "Women should not go down the route of natural insemination as a method of conception. If a donor is pushing this form of conception then his motives for creating a child are not the right ones." "A minority of donors may suggest this form of conceiving over home insemination, saying that it is more effective than artificial insemination. However this is simply not true, home insemination performed correctly at the right times of the month, is just as effective and sometimes more effective for achieving pregnancy." Pride Angel is the only sperm donor website which screens all profiles and does not allow sperm donors to offer natural insemination or request payment for sperm. Erika said "The majority of our donors genuinely want to help someone create a new life for all the right reasons." Article: 2nd May 2013 www.u.tv

Opportunity to help understand the changing face of Donation

My name is Stephen Whyte and I am a social sciences researcher from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane (QUT), Australia. I’m conducting research into the changing market for Donors and women seeking donors for DI, IUI, ICSI and IVF treatment. As a father of three beautiful sons myself, I am lucky enough to already know “why” people are seeking the amazing gift of parenthood. What my study is seeking to establish is the driving factors behind the potential parents and donors seeking to step away from the current public and private sector options for donor insemination treatment. My research aims to better understand the participants in this new market place (Website Forums for Donation), so that fiscal policy and legislation can affect more socially beneficial outcomes. Government policy is often based on stringent un-biased academic research such as the type I am attempting to conduct. I am seeking to better understand the donors and potential parents involved in websites such as Pride Angel. To do this I first need to have an understanding of the people involved and what has brought them to participate in such online forums. I have created a short survey that takes approximately five - ten minutes for donors and ten – fifteen minutes for people seeking donors to fill in. The survey does not ask you to personally identify yourself, it is completely anonymous. We do not wish to identify you now or in the future. What we do want is a general demographic outline of you, so as to form a better idea of what has brought you to this forum. Understanding how you have got to this point, the factors that drive you and what is influencing your selection is the essence of this research. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I would ask and hope that you follow the links below, fill in our survey and help us in our research endeavour. Thank you and good luck in your pursuit of the amazing gift of life. If you are a donor please fill in the survey at this link: www.survey.qut.edu.au/survey/175520/e66c/ If you are looking for a donor please fill in the survey at this link: www.survey.qut.edu.au/survey/175495/125c/ Article: 28th November 2012 by Stephen Whyte - Social sciences researcher from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane (QUT), Australia

Age, sex, location...sperm count? Free sperm donors online

Trent Arsenault’s website could easily be mistaken for an online dating profile. There, the 36-year-old Silicon Valley high-tech worker describes his appearance (blond hair, brown eyes), personality (“happy, easy going”) and hobbies (“hiking, bird watching, habitat conservation”). But interspersed among action shots of Arsenault biking in China and scuba diving in Hawaii are snapshots of his sexual health records, genetic testing results and the 15 children he’s fathered since hanging up a shingle in 2006 as a “free sperm donor” www.trentdonor.org. He’s part of a burgeoning online network of willing donors and would-be mothers who are bypassing the anonymity and expense of licensed sperm banks in favour of a more do-it-yourself approach to assisted conception, much to the ire of semen regulators who have decried the practice as a threat to public health. Arsenault has been locked in a regulatory battle with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2010, when the regulator ordered him to stop making private donations unless he could meet the stringent requirements it has set out for sperm banks. “On that logic, every man in America could be a risk to their partner,” Arsenault contends. Indeed, he claims to pose a reduced risk in comparison with men who beget children the old-fashioned way because he’s celibate, provides documentation of regular screening for sexually transmitted infections and donates via a sterile cup and syringe. Now, Canadian proponents of free sperm donation fear the case will set a precedent for similar crackdowns by Health Canada, which has already issued two alerts about the “serious potential health risks” of the practice. “I’m absolutely concerned,” says Sam [who requested her last name be withheld], a Toronto, Ontario–based mother who is attempting to conceive a second child using free donations from men she’s met online. She and her partner spent more than $10 000 conceiving their first child via a licensed sperm bank. “We go into it with our eyes wide open, know what our risks are and make the decision based on the information we’re provided and what our guts tell us. Ultimately, it’s no worse than going to a bar and picking someone up.” But it’s the fact that private donors and recipients are not having sex that’s exposing them to scrutiny from regulators in Canada, the United Kingdom and the US. Semen is regulated as a drug in Canada, unless it’s donated to a spouse or sexual partner, according to Leslie Meerburg, a media relations officer for Health Canada. As a drug, it must pass through a battery of checks under the Food and Drugs Act and “Processing and Distribution of Semen for Assisted Conception Regulations,” including a six-month quarantine period during which the sperm is frozen. This effectively makes it impossible for individuals to donate fresh sperm privately without having sex or breaking the law, says Emily Larose, a Toronto, Ontario–based lawyer who specializes in dealing with health regulations. Private donors who opt to do the latter could face compliance and enforcement actions, including prosecution, although “the extent to which Health Canada would take these enforcement measures is not certain,” Larose says. “I don’t know whether a friend helping out a friend would be a situation that would trigger this kind of scrutiny, [but] when people are doing it in a broader, more public sense [as they are online] they attract the regulator’s attention.” That’s been the case in both the UK and the US, where similar restrictions on semen donation and exemptions for donations from “intimate” partners apply and www. In recent years, the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has given written notice to private sperm donation sites to warn that their unlicensed operation constitutes a criminal offence (www.hfea.gov.uk/1369.html). But Arsenault’s case appears to be the first in which a regulator has targeted an individual donor for enforcement. He had already sired 10 children via artificial insemination and made some 328 donations to 46 different recipients when FDA investigators searched his home in August 2010. Three months later, he received the order to “cease manufacturing” donations there unless he could “provide adequate protections against the risk of communicable disease transmission”. Advocates for free sperm donation argue it’s unfair to hold individuals to the same standards as sperm banks, particularly as many private donors disclose more information about their sexual health, genetics and fertility than most people require of their so-called intimate partners. Adam [who requested his last name be withheld], a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based student, writes in an email that he’s taken greater precautions in preparing to become a private donor than even most recipients require. In addition to screening for sexually transmitted infections, he has undergone genetic testing, conferred with a lawyer about his responsibilities to recipients and any resulting children, and sought to determine whether there is a maximum number of children a donor may have per population. And like Arsenault, Adam abstains from sex. Although Adam acknowledges that not all donors go to such lengths — either because of ignorance or “darker motives” — he accuses government of overreaching its authority by extending their hand into the bedrooms of private citizens. “There needs to be protection in place [for] both the parties. Having said that, ... this comes down to the old argument of the government trying to restrict what consenting adults want to do.” Others contend the regulations force women to choose between the financial consequences of using a sperm bank and the physical and emotional risks of having sex with a stranger. “That’s a crappy choice, and guess what? That person still wants to have a baby and they’re going to find a way,” says Beth Gardner, founder of the US-based Known Donor Registry, a site that currently connects some 5750 people interested in private donation, including Canadians. “It’s not the realm of government to decide who I’m allowed to have a baby with and how I’m going to make that happen. That’s my business.” Current restrictions only serve to force such transactions underground, putting desperate women at a greater risk of being coerced into sex or obtaining sperm from unscrupulous donors who have foregone screening, Gardner adds. A “much more appropriate” alternative to imposing one-size-fits-all regulations on sperm banks and individual donors alike would be to create a distinct set of guidelines on how to engage in private donation as safely as possible, she argues. That could be as simple as recognizing private donor–recipient relationships as “intimate” and therefore exempt from the regulations governing sperm donations, or the development of some form of universal checklist or consent form that sets out each party’s risks and responsibilities. Erika Tranfield, director and cofounder of the UK-based private donation site Pride Angel, concurs. A less restrictive approach would also enable women and donors to work more closely with health professionals to carry out private donations, ensuring an additional layer of accountability while retaining the ability to “create their own rules,” she says. Many women are attracted to private donation because it allows them to meet potential sperm donors in person, and screen for personality and other characteristics that are difficult to judge from sperm bank profiles, Tranfield says. The parties can also customize the level of contact they propose to maintain after a child is conceived, she adds. “It eliminates the longing to meet the donor when they’re older and the child is obviously able to say ‘I have a dad,’ making them no different from the kids at school.” Arsenault has kept in touch with several of the families which were recipients of his sperm and those relationships are the basis on which he’s appealing the FDA kibosh on his activities as donor. “The recipients and I agree we’re intimate partners,” Arsenault says, adding that the FDA doesn’t have a right to define what constitutes sexual intimacy for individuals. The FDA hasn’t yet indicated whether it will grant a hearing on his appeal but in the mean time, Arsenault says he’ll continue donating. The FDA did not respond to requests for an interview. Article: 17th April 2012 www.cmaj.ca

Sperm donation online: Websites a better alternative to unknown donors?

Recent articles in the news have highlighted the downsides of using unregulated sperm donor websites, portraying them as placing vulnerable women at risk. Is this really the case or is sperm donation online providing a much needed service, which is not being met by fertility clinics alone? Often highlighted are the occasions when male donors try to abuse the system by requesting payments or offering natural insemination (in other words sex) as the best method of conception.

Unfortunately some online forums seem to be dominated by donors chatting to each other and boasting about the number of children they have conceived. There is certainly a downside, which individuals must be aware of when trying to find a known donor. Finding a known donor or co-parent can be like trying to meet a lifelong partner - unfortunately along the journey you may have to encounter men or women which are not likeminded and who you do not connect with, before eventually finding the right one.

This said, despite the media's negative tilt, the option of using a known donor has many upsides, which is why it is becoming such a popular option for many single, gay or infertile couples. So what are the advantages? The obvious one may be cost, with IVF funding being cut by so many regions throughout the UK, many single people or couples may simply not be able to afford fertility treatment through a clinic. However after speaking with Erika the co-founder of Pride Angel, a leading parenting connection website, she believes that this is not the main reason people go down the online sperm donor route.

Erika says ‘Many women choose a connection service, because they want more information about the donor than they receive at a clinic’, ‘They want to understand their personality and mannerisms, after all the donor is going to make up 50% of the child’s genes’. ‘Many single women and lesbian couples, also wish for their child to know of their donor, they want to maintain contact, be it occasional or on a regular basis’ ‘The important factor is educating people about any potential risks and providing the necessary support and guidance regarding health risks and legal rights’.

An article in the Telegraph today wrote‘These unregulated sites are so popular that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) last week announced plans to increase payments made to sperm and egg donors in the hope that this will increase the number of regulated donations’ Connection websites are not obliged to be regulated in any way, unless they are involving themselves in the procurement of gametes. Websites which act purely as connection services put the responsibility, rightly so, on the users to make their own informed decision regarding whether they choose to take their donor to a clinic for treatment or undertake artificial insemination following suitable health screening checks by their GP.

There are dozens of websites providing a donor connection service, however many of these websites do not monitor their donors or control the numbers of connections between donors and recipients. This is why when choosing a website it is important to use one who is being responsible. Speaking with Erika from Pride Angel, she said ‘We are one of the only connection services worldwide who constantly monitor profiles and we suspend any users who are not meeting our criteria’. ‘No mention of natural insemination, payments, shipping of sperm or anonymous donation is allowed. Any users which break this ‘code of conduct’ are suspended.’ ‘Pride Angel also uses a limited message credit system which means, that not only can donors only contact a limited number of recipients, but is also means that donors are more likely to be genuine’.

There have also been many stories in the news recently from donor-conceived children, about their search to find their origins. For some it may be a happy ending, but for many more it is not. With the change in the anonymity law in 2005, we will not be able to see the effects of children wishing to meet their donors, conceived through fertility clinics until 2023. What will be the effect of these reunions? Will there be the issue of rejection by donors or even the devastating possibility of genetic attraction, which has already been estimated to occur in 50% of cases between adopted children and their biological parents or siblings? Genetic attraction tends to only occur when there has not been any previous contact throughout a child’s upbringing with their donor or sibling and does not occur between known donors and their biological children.

Many women are also now considering finding their own egg donor through a donor website, especially when there are such long waiting times for egg donors within the UK, Some recipients wish to meet the donor to find out more about them, and likewise egg donors feel happier donating to a women or couple who they believe will provide a happy environment for their donor offspring. Speaking with one egg donor, they said ‘I was able to select the family to who my eggs were donated to, we had several meetings and together we decided that they would like to tell their child from a young age. I agreed that they are welcome to come round anytime. Their child is now 5 and I have met him 6 times in total. Although genetically he is my child I will never be his mother nor would I ever want that position, I simply helped a wonderful couple become a family.’

A donor conceived child said ‘I know where my genetic mother is and can visit her if I would like to, but my real mother is the mum that brought me up'. Another donor-conceived child said ‘I know who my dad is, even if I only see him occasionally, that means I am no different to any of my friends at school'.

‘Pride Angel receives numerous thank you messages from recipients who have eventually found the right donor and from men who have been able to become parents themselves through co-parenting arrangements’

Surely a solution is for women to be able to use known donors, even if they are found through website connection services, so they can pass on more information to their children about their origins. After all, it is the children’s welfare which is of paramount importance.

Article: 25th October 2011 www.prideangel.com


http://bit.ly/t1iLU8

Sperm donors online: Are there emotional and physical risks?

The following recent article by the Daily Mail highlights the risks both physically and emotionally of sleeping with a sperm donor met online. As a single woman any donor would be classed as the child’s legal father and could be held financially responsible. For this reason many donors may try to conceal their true identity, which adds a greater risk for the recipient, of not having adequate identification for CRB checks and health screening tests. Not to mention the importance of any child not being able to trace their biological routes when they are older.

Erika from Pride Angel states ‘ There are many advantages for personally meeting a sperm donor and having them involved in their child’s life’ ‘Making sure that both parties have the same views regarding their parenting and level of involvement is imperative to any successful arrangement’

‘It is also important to consider the risks, getting legal advice and full health screening tests before attempting to conceive’ ‘Using a regulated clinic is the only real way of being certain about any health risks and gaining fertility treatment through a clinic also clarifies the legal position for both the donor and the recipient’ .

For these reasons Pride Angel unlike many other websites, has strict terms and conditions regarding donors not donating by natural insemination, no payments being offered and anonymous donation is strongly discouraged. Profiles are monitored constantly and users are able to ‘Report’ any concerns they have regarding other members.

Article: Frances Benning, 29 has chosen to conceive with a sperm donor. She has scheduled the event meticulously; planned every detail with military precision — for her sole purpose is to become pregnant. But the man she has chosen to be the father of her baby is neither her husband, nor her partner nor, even, a long-term friend. In fact, he is Toby, a sperm donor she met for the first time just a few hours ago.

Toby, 30, who is affluent and handsome with a glamorous job in the film industry, and Frances — attractive, articulate and privately-educated — were introduced via a website that matches potential sperm donors with would-be mothers. After she singled him out as a prospective father, they corresponded before arranging to meet.

No money would change hands but, at the end of their brief encounter, Frances fervently hoped, Toby would have bestowed on her the priceless gift of life.

After that, she planned to embark on life as a single mum. She figured she could manage perfectly alone: she is resourceful, financially secure and owns her own house outright. But as is often the case with even the best-laid schemes, Frances’ went awry. For a start, she failed to factor emotions into her plan, and had not reckoned on the impact of seeing the father of her future child face-to-face.

‘When I first met Toby I thought, “Wow!”,’ she recalls. ‘He is 6ft 5in, dark-haired and blue-eyed with lovely broad muscular shoulders. He looked even better than he did in his photos. Under different circumstances Frances, a legal secretary, and Toby, whose job as a researcher takes him round the world, could have been made for each other.

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

Sperm donor and co-parent website: How does Pride Angel work?

You are one step closer to starting your family or helping others achieve their dream. Find out more about how Pride Angel works, whether you are a wishing to become a sperm donor, egg donor, co-parent, or recipient looking for a donor.
Getting information
Donors
Choosing to donate sperm or eggs is a wonderful gift, giving others the opportunity of becoming parents. It can be a big decision to become a donor, whether or not you wish to be involved in the upbringing of the child, it is worth considering what level of contact you wish to maintain. Getting plenty of information regarding your legal rights and what health screening is required is really important.

Recipients
Are you looking for a sperm donor to complete your family? It is a big decision and you will want to choose the right person, as ultimately they will be giving 50% of your future child’s genes. It is also really important to find a like minded person, especially when there is an intention that the donor will play a part in the child’s life, such as an ‘uncle type figure’. Even if your intention is for your child to have no contact with the donor, children need to have the ability to trace their identity as they become adults. Therefore keeping a record of the donor’s identification is important to enable them to trace at age 18 years if they wish to. Receiving treatment through a fertility clinic will ensure that these details are kept on file. If you are a lesbian couple, it is worth considering whether you will be entering into a civil partnership before starting fertility treatment or home insemination. If you are civil partners at the time you conceive, the non-birth mother is your child's legal parent if you conceive artificially (which covers IUI or IVF at a licensed clinic, and artificial insemination at home) If you are a single woman and you conceive outside a fertility clinic (home insemination) your donor would be treated as the child’s legal parent in the eyes of the law.

Co-parents
Choosing to co-parent as a single person or couple is a real commitment, but an arrangement which works, can be really beneficial to a child, gaining input from both biological parents and the extra support from extended family members. As a co-parent you would be sharing parental responsibility and also any financial responsibility too. Members wishing to co-parent are advised to take their time choosing the right kind of person who has similar parenting styles and values to you. Getting to know your co-parent over a period of a year can enables a greater understanding of whether you would both be able to co-parent effectively.

Involving your partner
If you are looking for a sperm donor as part of a couple, such as a lesbian couple, or heterosexual couples, it is important to involve your partner as much as possible in the process. The partner who is not the birth mother can sometimes feel left out and may be concerned about whether they will bond with the child. It is important to keep communication open at all times and to both talk about ways in which you could make each other feel secure and happier in the decision to start a family together. Share your thoughts and feelings, maybe have counselling together before starting your journey to parenthood.
If you are a donor looking to donate or co-parent as part of a couple it is also necessary to consider the feeling of your partner and to be open and honest about your donations. Many children wish for the option of contacting their donor later in life, even if simply to see what their ‘biological father or mother’ is like. How you would feel and how your partner would feel, when a’ biological child’ makes contact in the future must be a serious consideration when choosing to donate.

Viewing profiles
Pride Angel allows you to search basic profiles of sperm donors, egg donors, co-parents and recipients without the need to register, searching by country and county. However to view another member’s full profile and any image/picture you are required to register with us. Becoming a member also allows you to do ‘advanced searches’ allowing you to search specific criteria such as eye colour, hair colour and race, to name but a few.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/9mvqof

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

Sperm donor websites: a personal fertility choice?

Sperm donor websites are increasing in popularity with many people searching for a sperm donor or co-parent online. Are they a health risk or a personal choice which could benefit the future of any future children?
There has been a lot of bad press recently in light of the two businessmen Nigel Woodforth and Ricky Gage, charged for not having a licence to procure gametes. The pair acted as ‘sperm brokers’ aiding in the transport and testing of sperm. They enabled anonymous donation and put women’s health at risk by organising health screening. This has brought to the attention the increased popularity of sperm donor websites which effectively connect donors and recipients looking for sperm.

Sperm donor or co-parenting websites are not required by law to be regulated, as long as they are simply bringing people together, not acting as intermediaries in the way that the two recently convicted were doing. When a site is purely a connection service a women is able to make her own choice about whether she wishes to protect her heath and legal rights by taking the donor to a regulated fertility clinic, or whether she feels that there is a level of trust sufficient for them to obtain the necessary health screening tests themselves, through a clinic, GP or GUM service. After which recipients may decide to choose home insemination as a method of conception. This later option is more applicable to co-parenting situations whereby the donor and recipient have got to know each other over a period of time and there are legal co-parenting agreements in place before proceeding.

Women wish to have choices about how they will conceive and should they not have the freedom to make those choices without regulatory constraints. The emphasis should therefore not be about removing such choices, but instead about educating individuals so that they are fully informed about any risks they are taking, enabling them to make better informed decisions, which are right for their personal circumstances and their potential child.

There has been a social and cultural shift in recent times, towards women wishing to meet a known donor. Some may say this is because of high fertility costs, or maybe the ‘shortage of donors’ or could it be that women are actually thinking of their children’s future and that they would far rather personally meet a like minded individual, who is happy to stay in touch as an ‘uncle type’ figure, rather than for their child to always long to meet an unknown donor as they grow up. There has been much research and evidence which has shown that children who know the identity of their donor and know the truth about their conception from an early age are more secure with their identity as they become adults.

The change to the anonymity law, is a good thing for donor conceived children allowing them to trace the identity of their donor at age 18, however we are still to really discover the effect this will have on the thousands of children who may be wanting to meet their biological father in the future. They may find that the donor is simply not interested in being contacted. There is also the worry that the donor may not be the kind of person the mother would wish for their child to meet, after all, she may have only received basic details such as height and eye colour, by which to choose her donor originally. There is also the real concern of genetic attraction which especially affects parents and children who have never met before adulthood. The effect of this could be potentially catastrophic.

When these effects do come to the forefront in the year 2023, 18 years after the new law was introduced in 2005, will it be decided that children where better off not really getting this information? Would it not therefore be far better for donor conceived children to have known of their donor from the beginning?

So what is the answer, surely to give people the option of finding a known donor or co-parent and for the authorities to work together with sperm donor websites to ensure that enough information is available to their users regarding health screening and the legal implications allowing the ability for them to source accessible and affordable fertility treatment?

A spokesman for the HFEA has pointed out that it is the health risks of not using a fertility clinic which concerns them most. Therefore they are advising people to only use sperm donor websites which direct their users to a licensed clinic, ensuring that complete health screening is completed and that a record of the donor’s name is kept on file.

Pride Angel the leading worldwide connection site primarily aimed at the gay and lesbian community is the only website dedicated to providing quality information regarding health screening and fertility law. Erika co-founder of Pride Angel stated ’all our profiles are continually screening to ensure users are not offering ‘natural insemination’ or requesting an ‘anonymous’ donor. Nor is payment for donations allowed to be offered or requested.’ ‘We also offer email support for users requiring help and further information.’ ‘Users should never consider using a donor who offers natural insemination, even if they offer artificial insemination as well. The health risks of such ‘promiscuous’ donors is too great’.

‘We have had so many people thank us for the service we provide, without which co-parenting arrangements would not happen and many lesbian couples and gay men would not have the chance to experience the joys of parenthood.’ says Erika

For more information regarding finding a co-parent, health screening and fertility law visit www.prideangel.com

To read more go to http://bit.ly/9aF997

Sperm 'brokers' who made £250,000 face jail

Two businessmen Nigel Woodforth 43 and Ricky Gage 49 face jail after being convicted of running an illegal fertility company. They made £250,000 by acting as 'sperm brokers' and intermediaries through their online operation Fertility 1st. The pair introduced would be donors to nearly 800 women who were desperate to conceive - who were charged over £500 for the privilege.
The men were reported to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) after one of their clients complained about their unprofessional standards.

Unlike any other introductory site, Fertility 1st directly paid sperm donors and charged women for the donations. They also kept the donors details anonymous as the women and the donors did not need to meet or exchange any personal details. Instead Fertility 1st arranged for the fresh sperm to be couriered to the recipients house for home insemination.

The sperm brokers claimed to have tested the sperm donors for infections such as HIV, but there could be no assurance that the tests where actually up to date, and that the donors had not had unprotected sex in the meantime, thus putting the health of these women as risk of infections such as HIV, hepatitis and syphilis. There was also no proof that the sperm was actually from the right donor.

Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, donors using licensed clinics are not the legal fathers of any child conceived. However they are classed as parents if the centre has no licence.

Without licensed treatment, a child does not have the legal guarantee that they would be able to find out who their father is later in life, nor can they access his genetic history.

The HFEA said: "Certain internet-based businesses claim to be merely an introductory service whereby recipients and donors are put in touch with one another and thereafter make their own arrangements. The HFEA is aware that some of these businesses, however, do not allow direct contact between recipient and donor. Under the act this is an element of procurement and therefore required to be licensed."

Websites who act as purely introduction services, allowing potential donors and recipients to meet, are not required to be licensed.

Unfortunately sperm brokers such as Fertility 1st do give a bad name to online connections services, many of which do help to bring people together in a positive way, enabling co-parenting arrangements and genuine donors who wish to stay in contact with any child. For example a lesbian couple being able to co-parent with a gay couple can have such a positive effect for the child's identity.

Pride Angel, the leading parenting connection site welcomes the decision of the court regarding 'Fertility 1st'. Erika Tranfield co-founder of Pride Angel stated 'the broker service that these businessmen provided went against everything we at Pride Angel believe in'. 'We want to provide our users with the ability to find co-parents, who will be part of the child's life and do not agree with anonymous donation. We are also committed to advising our users about the health screening risks and legal implications of any co-parenting or donor arrangement.'

'In addition to this, Pride Angel has a strict 'Code of Conduct' for our users to abide by' and sperm donors agree to use HFEA regulated clinics for treatment. All our profiles our continually monitored and reviewed. No mention of natural insemination is permitted. No mention of anonymous donation is allowed, donors must not request payment for donations and recipients must not offer money to donors. We also restrict messages sent between users to prevent any donors over contacting or harassing women, unlike any other connection service'.

To read more go to http://bit.ly/b2b1a9