by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
New government regulations are pushing British sperm banks to the verge of collapse. Great Britain has recently reversed confidentiality laws, with the result that children who are conceived with donated sperm will now be able to learn the identity of their donor fathers. Needless to say, prospective donors are worried that they may one day be hit up for child support.
New laws have also been enacted that will limit the number of women who can use the sperm of one donor. Britain currently allows one donor's sperm to inseminate no more that ten women, while the Netherlands will permit twenty-five women to use the sperm of one donor. (Twenty-five children conceived through the same donor father - or even just ten - sounds like a Greek tragedy just waiting to develop!) The United States has no cap on the number of women who can be impregnated by one donor!
The combination of less anonymity for the donors coupled with fewer women being allowed to use the sperm of the same donor has resulted a drastic reduction in supply. Britain has an estimated need of 500 donors per year. They were barely reaching that goal when the new laws went into effect in 2005. A year later they were down to 300 donors, and now the number is down in the double digits.
France has retained anonymity and even pays expenses for sperm donors (magazines, maybe?), but they are also suffering from a shortage of donors. The only countries that appear to not be experiencing a shortage of deposits into their sperm banks are those that retain anonymity and pay for donations - such as Spain and the United States.
So, long-story-short, capitalism does work!
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