living in limbo , sperm donors

Daniel Quiles
Psychology

Living in limbo, Psychology today Sperm donors have become extremely popular over the years, especially for Andrew who has handed over his sperm to 85 women and has 24 donor children. Andrew started giving away his sperm about 5 years ago; he says he likes to help people attain something they can’t. Andrew enjoys doing this he says it is like a drug too knows that people always pick you. One may even say that Andrew is addicted; he spends up to 3 hours a day online looking for women hunting sperm.

Donor conceived children face many problems growing up as many questions start to arise. Some think that their conception came from money not love, others want to meet their real father. Some go even as far as believing that they may fall in love with a half sibling. Its is sad for the children because most donors become donors due to the finical gain it comes with, todays sperm bank donors gain up to $12,000 a year. 76 percent of donor-conceived adults said they want to meet, learn bout, and develop a relationship with their donor with 80 percent searching for the donor. There is also an issue for the parents because anonymity is no longer present due to the fact that child wants to find the donor. This brings many worries such as will the children still have that connection with their parents. Another issue is how will the father feel, will he feel like less of a man? Alana Newman is donor child who was told from the very start that she was from an anonymous sperm donor. She never shared a father daughter relationship with any of her mom’s boyfriends. Once Newman left to college she began to find herself in one unrewarding relationship after another, leading to her hatred in men. She wasn’t expecting much if she every met her real father but she felt that all donor kids want to meet there kids. In 2011 Newman started a website “the anonymous US project”. This website help donor kids tell there stories and how they feel about not knowing there father.

I feel that this article was really interesting because it help me noticed how important it is for a child to have both parents and understand where they come from. Even if a child is love jus by the mother they begin to become curious and just want know about the donor. It is really sad for the donors that make a living off of selling their sperm, because the kids will honestly feel that they were just a financial gain. In the case of Andrew I don’t that it is healthy that he is the biological father of so many children, wouldn’t it be awkward if all 24 of Andrews kid wanted to meet him, 24 siblings with the father that wants no relations with them. Maybe Andrew did it out of the goodness of his heart but he doesn’t think of the consequences. When we read about Newman, we can sense the how the lack of a father figure in her life affected her. If Newman were to have been told that one of her mom’s boyfriends was her father it could have helped with feelings towards men. Maybe she wouldn’t have hated them. Maybe she would have just looked for her biological father to stop her from being so curious. This article really made me see things different when it comes to sperm donors; a lot of consequences come with becoming a sperm donor.