Whoever said masturbation was “wasting your seed”?
This has got to be the ultimate in virtual
reality -- getting pregnant through the Internet.
Saw a fascinating program on NHK (Japan’s
national broadcasting company), or, rather, my wife saw the program and told me
about it. The program interviewed men who freely donate their sperm to women
who are interested in having a baby without the fuss and bother of going
through the usual channels. The men claim they do it because they want to help
women. The women are motivated by the desire for a child but are facing their
ticking biological clock and don’t want to get involved with a man, at least not
on a ‘til-death-do-us-part basis.
The
procedure here in Japan, according to the NHK program, is for the men to
advertise their “wares” on a website. They can list their desirable qualities
such as age, health, physical appearance, work, education, etc. If they’ve been
in the game for a while, they may have a chart of their “accomplishments”—how
many women have accepted their donation and how many have resulted in
pregnancies. Some even have a pretty impressive list of their “children”.
Here
is an example of an offer of sperm donation by a young man in the Tampa, Florida
area. I should qualify this link, though. This guy offers only N.I. (natural insemination), so he may just be looking for an easy one night stand.
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The program and a discussion between my wife and
me (not without a lot of ribald joking) got me curious as to why men would
freely donate their sperm. I speculated they must get some kind of personal
male stud satisfaction in having bred a lot of children. It’s almost a perfect
situation for a man; he can brag about his amazing potency and escape any of
the responsibility for actually raising children. As for the women, my wife
speculated that they are approaching the limits of their biological clock, are
probably successful career women, want the experience of having and raising a
child and don’t want to bother living with a man. One child is enough I
suppose.
But why take the risks on unprotected meetings
with strangers in coffee shops and sperm not certified safe by medical
professionals, etc.? Well, in Japan the restrictions on who can access a
legitimate sperm bank are highly restrictive. Unmarried women can’t use them.
Sperm banks in, say the US, are not perhaps so restrictive, but enormously
expensive--$42,000 a pop—and no guarantees.
One anonymous sperm donor I found on the web
talked about his motivation:
D says when he hit age 45 after one marriage and
a handful of failed relationships, he realized he had no prospects of having
children with anyone soon. So he decided to become a sperm donor.
"People would say, 'You are out of your
mind, forget about it. Get married. Have your own life and have your own
children.' Well, I have been looking for a wife for the last 12 years and have
been unsuccessful.
So this is a different type of way for me to
produce some children," he says.
Hmmm.
Maybe I should go to into the business, too…and be a Good Samaritan.