A Sperm donor is a man who provides his sperm with the intention that it
be used in the fertility treatment of an anonymous woman so she can get
pregnant. The pregnancy produced by the use of donor sperm belongs to
the couple or client as the sperm donor gives up all legal rights to any child
produced from his sperm, and will not be the legal father, even though he
is the biological father.
Sperm donation may be done directly to the recipient woman or through
a sperm banking facility. The semen donated can be used for intrauterine
insemination [IUI], in-vitro fertilization, or via ICSI to achieve a pregnancy.
CLIENTS WHO NEED A SPERM DONOR
Single women
Couples with male factor infertility.
Recently, lesbian couples have been included on this list
Sperm donors may or may not be paid depending on the agreed
arrangements. Depending on the country’s laws, men may donate
anonymously or agree to provide identifying information to their offspring in
the future.
Sperm can be provided for use in fertility treatment through:
1. Sperm banks
Sperm banks provide donors with the chance to provide semen under a
contract deal depending on the number of pregnancies the bank hopes to
produce from the donor.
The sperm is produced by a donor either through masturbation to provide
an ejaculate or by the use of a collection condom to collect the semen
during sexual intercourse.
Semen is collected in small vials, mixed with chemicals and frozen for six
months. The sperm donor is retested for infectious diseases after six
months before the sperm can be used for fertility treatment.
Sperm banks typically screen potential donors for sexually transmitted
infections that may be transmitted through sperm. Genetic screening and
screening for chromosomal abnormalities are usually not done in most
centers in Nigeria. A six [6] months quarantine period is recommended in
which the semen samples are stored after which the donor will be re-tested
for sexually transmitted diseases. This ensures that the donor has not
acquired any new infections during this period. Sperm samples are used for
fertility treatment if results for STI tests are negative.
2. Private donations
Another way of getting semen for fertility treatment is through the use of
friends, family members, or through an agent who links the clinic or
recipients with a sperm donor.
The donor may or may not be known to the couple and in many cases, the
sperm is used fresh.
CHOOSING SPERM DONORS
Most couples have characteristics they wish for in a sperm donor such as
racial origin or tribe, the colour of skin, height, weight, the colour of eyes,
and blood group. The level of education may matter to some couples.
The genotype of the sperm donor must be AA to avoid transferring the
sickle cell trait to the offspring.
The sperm bank or clinic must choose donors with consistently high sperm
counts.
An important factor in choosing a donor is deciding if the donor should be
known to the client or anonymous. Some donors want to be known by the
mother and child, while others only want to be known by the mother.
Known donors offer a level of transparency about family history and other
important information. On the other hand, if you’re sure you don’t want the
donor to connect with your child later in life, an anonymous or unknown donor
might be best for your family.
CONTROVERSIES ABOUT SPERM DONATION
1. In the early days of sperm donation, a marriage was dissolved in a
US court on grounds of adultery because a woman used donor
semen despite the consent of the husband. The child conceived was
said to be born out of wedlock and belonged to the mother and not
the father.
However, the following year, another US court became the first state
to pass a statute legitimizing children conceived by donor
insemination, on the condition that both the husband and wife
consented in advance in writing to the procedure and the husband
legally considered the natural father of the donor-inseminated child.
2. In a recent Guardian article published on 28 Apr 2023, Dutch judges
have ordered a man suspected of fathering more than 550 children through sperm donations to stop donating. The man, identified in
Dutch media only as Jonathan M, 41, was taken to court by a
foundation protecting the rights of donor children and by the mother
of one of the children allegedly fathered from his sperm.
Dutch clinical guidelines say a donor should not father more than 25
children in 12 families, but judges said the man had helped produce
between 550 and 600 children since he started donating sperm in
2007.
The court therefore “prohibits the defendant from donating his semen
to new prospective parents after the issuing of this judgment.
3. The use of sperm donation among single women, lesbians or
transgender people. This has produced ethical questions about the
ideals of conventional parenting between a male father and a female
mother.
4. Some donor children may grow up finding that they have dozens of
siblings produced from the same sperm donor. In Nigeria, there are
no laws restricting the number of offspring from a single donor.
5. Religious responses
a. Catholicism
Catholicism officially opposes both the donation of sperm and the use of
donor sperm on the basis that it compromises the sexual unity of the
marital relationship and the idea "that the procreation of a human person is
brought about as the fruit of the conjugal act specific to the love between
spouses.
