Most sperm donors assume that they would father a few children. But with the news that some donors have fathered over 100 kids there have been calls for tighter regulation. It has been discovered that some sperm banks allow donors to father lots and lots of kids — one has over 150. And with these very large groups of half-siblings come risks: rare genetic conditions could be spread more widely through the gene pool, and children of the same donor could meet and, unbeknownst to them, commit incest.
As a result many parents are calling for tighter regulation so that donor children can know more about their donors, and the number of kids from each donor can be limited. And some men who donate sperm would prefer not to have over 100 biological kids.
However the sperm banks are not happy. These currently profit from the ability to sell the same man's sperm to lots of women. Many fertility clinics likely care about good outcomes for families and about honoring donors' wishes, and thus would adjust their rules accordingly if called upon to do so.
Currently, there exist web-based registries that allow parents who've used sperm donors to keep track of brothers and sisters that emanate from the same donor. Surprisingly, there isn't a registry of children born in the US per year via sperm cell donors. Far fewer than half of parents who utilize sperm donors participate in the voluntary registry. Parents who seek info about their sperm donors and half brothers and sisters use the website donorsiblingregistry.com. The registry was started in 2000 by the mother of a sperm donor son who wanted to connect with donor families.
Aside from a legion of half-brothers and sisters, advocates in favor of new sperm donor legislation believe a sperm donor child's best interests are served if the family has access to the donor half's genetics, medical history and ancestry.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine's ethics committee concurs with critics, the US must refocus and rethink donor limits.
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