Free Sperm Donors?? Buyer beware!!!!!
Danger!!! Free sperm donors!!!!
Donor gametes are available throughout the world where this is not banned. Obviously, the storage, administration and processing of this material is expensive. This means prospective recipients have to pay sometimes hefty sums to receive a few gametes and a chance of getting pregnant (one small survey of IVFAgent.com found donor eggs available for $22000).
We practitioners of IVF understand that this is a high price to pay, and to many it is not affordable.
However, prospective patients must understand that this price comes with some assurances:
1) The donation is anonymous, at least in countries where this is permitted.
2) The material is free of STD’s.
3) The material is free of the most common genetic disorders (i.e. Cystic Fibrosis)
Recently, it has come to our attention that a growing field of ‘free sperm donors’ exists.
What does this mean? The donor comes to your home, gives you some semen and leaves. Two methods are available, ‘insemination’ (where you place the semen in your Cervical Cap and hope for the best) or ‘natural insemination’ (we leave it to you to work this one out!).
While IVFAgent.com does not condemn the efforts of people to achieve their desires in any way they find suitable, we feel you should be aware of the following:
1) You are ‘inviting’ a complete stranger into your home in a pseudo-sexual context. Please before you do this think – would you attempt such a thing with someone you met on the metro? You are risking a lot, even in a legal context.
2) Donor sperm is considered safe because donors must undergo blood tests for common genetic diseases, and of course STD’s before donation and 6 months after donation. In the case of a positive result, the semen cannot be used. Your ‘free’ donor may bring exams (which you cannot verify), but you do not have the second control. Furthermore – do you have any data on the genetic make-up of the donor?
Since there are many people that ‘enjoy’ spreading STD’s, beware!!
3) Although free sperm donors exist – we could not find ANY free egg donors on the internet, which suggests the practice is male-orientated.
The essence of the story is – please remember that donor gametes from a storage facility are as safe as practitioners of assisted reproduction can make them, the whole process is under the control of a specialized practitioner and you recipient have a series of legal safeguards that come with the service. This has a cost which becomes entirely reasonable when you consider the service. Does ‘free sperm donation’ provide you with the same safeguards?
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