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PETBioNewsNewsFree trip 'down under' in exchange for sperm

BioNews

Free trip 'down under' in exchange for sperm

Published 9 June 2009 posted in News and appears in BioNews 239

Author

BioNews

Image by Bill McConkey via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts sperm swimming towards an egg.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Bill McConkey via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts sperm swimming towards an egg.

An Australian fertility clinic has advertised for sperm donors at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in exchange for a free trip 'down under'. The advertisement, placed in the sports section of the university's student newsletter, announced in large bold print 'Sperm donors needed. We will pay'. The advertisement states...

An Australian fertility clinic has advertised for sperm donors at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in exchange for a free trip 'down under'. The advertisement, placed in the sports section of the university's student newsletter, announced in large bold print 'Sperm donors needed. We will pay'. The advertisement states that the clinic is seeking men aged between 18 and 40 who would be available every second day of their 'holiday' to provide a sample of sperm.


The Albury Reproductive Medicine clinic, based in New South Wales, reportedly cannot find enough non-anonymous home-grown sperm donors in Australia. So it offered a two-week, all-expenses paid trip to Australia for Canadian males who passed initial screening and blood tests. 'We have advertised locally but with little success and for that reason find it necessary to search further from our own region', said Ruth Keat, program director of the clinic.


The clinic blames the shortage on a proposed New South Wales law which, if passed, will compel donors to disclose their identity. Previously, sperm donors could remain anonymous. Donors coming forward must be willing to be identified in confidential records as the donor, and may have their identity disclosed to offspring through a third-party agency at the age of eighteen, but would have no legal responsibilities for any children. Following the placing of the advertisement, Ms Keat said the response had been overwhelming: 'We just wanted a few donors but now it seems half the world wants to know', she said.


Meanwhile, fertility experts in Hobart, Tasmania, have said that a sperm shortage in the state could put Tasmania's IVF programmes at risk. More local sperm donors were needed, it said, because sperm stored at Tasmanian clinics was being 'depleted' by clinics in other states, where demand for sperm far exceeds supply. 'The situation on the mainland is desperate and it will become desperate here within the next 12 months unless more men donate sperm', said Dr Bill Watkins, who runs a clinic in Tasmania. But, commenting on the drastic action taken by the Albury clinic, he said his clinic would not be offering free holidays.

Related Articles

Image by Bill McConkey via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts sperm swimming towards an egg.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Bill McConkey via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts sperm swimming towards an egg.
News
9 June 2009 • 2 minutes read

New law affects sperm donation in the Netherlands

by BioNews

A new law that requires sperm donors to be identifiable has come into force in the Netherlands, resulting in a dramatic drop in the number of men coming forward to donate. Women wanting to obtain sperm from Dutch sperm banks are now apparently facing up to two years on a...

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
News
9 June 2009 • 1 minute read

New South Wales to 'shake up' fertility laws

by BioNews

The state of New South Wales in Australia has also proposed to remove the anonymity of sperm and egg donors, as part of a 'major shake-up' of its legislation on assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Following six years of deliberation, the New South Wales health authority has introduced a draft bill...

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