Sperm donor fathers more than 60 children using fake names
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Sperm donor who used false names to father up to 60 children exposed after parents at LGBTQI community event realized their children all looked the same
- Sperm donor used fake names to father 60 children
- He met many through casual channels like online forums.
- Industry professionals call for more regulations
Parents wondering why all their children looked remarkably similar at a community barbecue event discovered a sperm donor using false names to father more than 60 children.
The man, whose identity has not been released publicly, used four different aliases to donate sperm to members of the Australian LGBTQI community who made the shocking discovery at a recent gathering of new parents.
The stunned group of parents, some of whom met the man through informal channels, then began visiting local IVF facilities to see if the same man had been making the rounds at clinics.
A sperm donor allegedly used false names to father more than 60 Australian children in exchange for cash and travel.
“The reason he was discovered is because he wasn’t completely Caucasian,” said Dr. Anne Clark of the Fertility First IVF clinic. news corporation.
Dr. Clark said that he had been on Fertility First and had only used it once.
But the man, who was presumed to be of Indian descent, was offering his services through multiple methods, many of them unofficial and unregulated, such as Facebook groups.
“We know he got gifts, vacations, a whole criminal offence,” Dr. Clark said.
In Australia it is illegal to pay or give gifts to obtain any human tissue, with stiff prison sentences of up to 15 years for the offence.
Despite all this, informal giving is booming thanks to online forums offered to connect desperate would-be parents with willing donors.
Two Facebook pages, Sperm Donation Australia and Australian Backpackers Seeking Sperm Donation, are full of posts that look like classified ads on the back page: the bottom line for bringing a boy into the world.
‘Hey everyone. Looking for AI donor (artificial insemination) without co-father. I am a 19-year-old single woman, I have my own house, job and business,” says one publication.
‘I have everything I need to do this process, I just need a donor willing to help.’
On the backpackers page, other posts offer donations, some specifying by natural means, from people visiting the country for a few weeks on vacation.
A woman in a Facebook group for sperm donors wasn’t overly concerned about the donor’s identity.
One page is dedicated to backpackers looking to donate while visiting the country.
Another post from a 19-year-old looking for a donor through unofficial channels
Donor Conceived Australia’s national director, Aimee Shackleton, said there was little consideration for the effects such a decision would have on the child.
She said that when the child is older, they may want to meet their birth parents or connect with their siblings, of whom there could be dozens.
“People talk about meeting in a parking lot or hotel and handing over a fresh sample for immediate use…our life must begin with dignity, and not as an unregulated anonymous transaction process,” he said.