The Thorny Issues Of The Fertility Industry

By Meghna Chakrabarti
Sep 21, 2011, 3:40 PM
15 Comments

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There’s a Boston man. He’s a lawyer. His name is Ben Seisler. He has over 70 children, by his calculation.

As a law student, Seisler donated some of his sperm to help defray law school costs.

(spaceodissey/Flickr)

Now, that’s not entirely unusual. Seisler’s tall. Good looking. Athletic. At $150 dollars a donation, and the guarantee of anonymity, things didn’t seem very complicated.

But then, in 2005, things did get a bit complicated. And Seisler himself is the one who stirred things up. He’d read an article about the Donor Sibling Registry — a website that helps children born via sperm or egg donation find their biological family members.

Seisler logged on and put in his donor number. He found that he may have a lot of kids. The situation makes for a watchable reality documentary special. He’s the subject of a new reality TV show set to air on the Style channel next week, “Style Exposed: Sperm Donor.”

But what’s Seisler’s story really exposes is the very thorny landscape that’s now emerging as a generation of young people, raised on the internet, with Facebook-fueled notions of what should and shouldn’t be private. These donor-conceived young people want information about their biological fathers.

As Seisler’s story shows, the fertility business is a billion dollar industry that’s almost entirely unregulated in the United States.

Should donors be allowed anonymity? Should there be a limit to how much money donors receive, or the number of times they donate? And, in the Internet age, how much should donor children be allowed to know about their true genetic backgrounds?

Guests:

Debora L. Spar, president, Barnard College; author, “The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception”
Liz Coolidge, coordinator, Alternative Insemination Program and LGBT Family and Parenting Services, Fenway Health

More:

Boston Globe: Who’s Your Daddy?

Other stories from this show:

http://en-gb.facebook.com/onanov Donald Baxter

heck no, I’m not signing up. Talk about asking for trouble.
Bill

I know the odds are against it – but what happens if two people from the same donor hook up and have kids? They’re basically half-brother, half-sister, and any kids they have are high risk of negative genetic reinforcement.

Bo Geste

I’m with you, Bill. Talk about eugenics gone wild! The irony of having selected an “uber mensch”, to sire a more “perfect” human, only to screw up the gene pool by two half siblings inadvertently procreate.�
Frankly, I think the sperm bank / IVF thing is totally narcissistic. Heard of adoption?

Have compassion/ stop judging

you obviously know nothing about adoption…the cost, the wait, the heartache, the laws working against you. What’s narcissistic is you. I’m guessing you haven’t adopted.

eeka

Adoption through DCF is free. You’re misrepresenting adoption to keep talking about how expensive and difficult it is.

http://www.facebook.com/emmahartnellbaker Emma Hartnell-Baker

You cant adopt in Australia unless straight and married. Dont making sweeping comments about parenting options. Nacissistic to want to be a parent? What planet are you on. No, I wouldnt use a sperm bank- but only because I believe every child should have the right to know of their biological origins from birth and ideally be able to meet him when they want. I also wouldnt want to risk choosing a donor who wouldnt embrace my child- so I want to meet and choose the donor- and would want him to be sure about me as a mother. There are major issues with sperm banks – especially in the US. In most other countries we are way ahead- banning anonimity, limiting the number of offspring and more. Still a long way to go.
Being infertile doesnt make you ‘narcissistic’ Bo Geste. And most arent looking for a designer baby, they are looking for a man who will donate- and then remain connected. Only sites like FSDW actually facilitate that, and thank goodness we do have options. Open your heart a little – as well as trying to debate the issues.

Have compassion/ stop judging

I would ask wbur to have more compassion for those suffering (at young ages, particularly) infertility. It’s nothing but tragedy — the adoption industry (foreign and domestic), women/girls giving birth, and fert clinics are out to get your money and make the process as difficult as possible. It’s terrible to refer to egg/sperm donors as “biological parents” or mothers or fathers. They’re not. The people who raise you are.

As far as learning about their genetics, the arguments for it are science fiction. What’s genetically expressed in any individual is random and unpredictable. For the very few deterministic genetic issues we understand, we can test. Otherwise, you do what the rest of us do: live as healthy a lifestyle as you can stand to prevent disease.

Meghna Chakrabarti

Hi there,

Thanks for your thoughts. I’m wondering if you heard the actual segment as it was broadcast? I ask because one of our guests, Liz Coolidge (a director at Fenway Health), was on this show for precisely the reasons you state. In fact, my very first question to her was along the lines you mention — as someone who helps families/women seeking to start families, what are her thoughts. I also pointed out towards the middle of the segment that the deeply personal nature of this issue makes it difficult to proclaim any one set of solutions would work for all. And we took a phone call from a woman who was an egg donor herself.

I just point these out because often times there’s a gap between the text you see on our brief website pages, and the actual in depth conversation we have on the radio broadcast. Thanks again.

lexparent

The Seisler story is disturbing on a number of levels: the number of children from a single donor is inconsistent with best practices, which would limit children conceived from one donor to 10 families.�
He is a genetic donor, not a father. Children and young adults often want information about their genetic background; and they live with their parents, the people who take care of them and support them every day year in and year out. The Siesler story sensationalizes and debases these every day family relationships. The clip in which the mother prepared her child to meet Seisler was chilling: too much information and not enough clarity about who is there to take care of the child (and be a parent). When children need to know their genetic background, it is not because they have a gap in their family, something implictly suggested in the Seisler story. For many children of adoption or sperm/egg donors, it is simply part of understanding who they are, and their genetic background.�
Thanks for having such knowledgeable guests on this topic.

Have compassion/ stop judging

Well said — I’m just not sure wbur told a balanced story. Hearing from a woman grappling with the egg donor issue, the emotional and social dangers (eg, see nasty posts below) would’ve been better journalism. I’m surprised to see unbalanced stories like this.
Marilynndawn

I help reunite families like these for free. In my experience (granted I only meet the people who want contact) they are not looking for genetic heritage they are looking to become full fledged members of their own paternal families like they should have been from the outset, They don’t all say that at first and neither do the parents who are looking for the kids they created this way but in the end once they find one another thats the truth they are just affraid to talk about it at the begining,

From a medical or geneology standpoint of course children originate from their parents but their parents may or may not raise them, When parents don’t get their names on their children’s birth certificates they are not their child’s legal parent – someone else might be their child’s legal parent. It might be a step parent or an entirely adoptive situation. So the people that create the child are always the paremts of their own offspring even though someone else raising them is considered to be their legal parent. That being said meeting a genetic parent for the first time is a really big deal its exxiting. So much is on the line. Its definately not just their genetic history its belonging to their club its a birth right or so it feels

http://www.facebook.com/emmahartnellbaker Emma Hartnell-Baker

Should donors be allowed anonymity?
No.

Should there be a limit to how much money donors receive, or the number of times they donate?
Of course – or you get men donating for the money- will no thought to the potential issues, especially re the child. Of course we should limit the number of times their sperm is used. Ridiculous that the US isnt addressing this- as are most other countries.

And, in the Internet age, how much should donor children be allowed to know about their true genetic backgrounds?
With respect- what a stupid question. DC children are PEOPLE and should have the right to information about themselves. Again, why is the US not banning this practice- it is unconstitutional.

AnnS

Grow up!

It is not “unconstitutional” Only person who would say such a thing demonstrting total and complete ignoracne of the US Consitutiton would be one of theose ‘I got everything I know from the Internet and Facebook” types.

Guest

Then there are the reasons and values why people do this. First the woman may be infertile or other reason. Then the man cannot produce sperm or enough of it. A man donates sperm and there’s a woman whom receives the eggs and conceives the child for the childless couple. There have been so many reasons and situations why people do this. Between anti-abortionists, men whom “sperm out” 70 kids, birth-alteration to get quintuplets, overpopulation, genetic transference generation to generation for generations of depression, alcoholism, etc., I really wish people would stop having children–or at least having so many. People don’t stop to weigh this. Many people are programmed to believe the only way you have a piece of the American pie or look important and legitimate is to just start having kids without really doing the homework and mapping it out for the many years ahead. As for this sperm donor whom donates for money, and has ‘spermed out” about 70 kids, this seems as sick as polygamy!
AnnS

Should donors be allowed anonymity?

   YES> If that ws the condition under which they donated. If the offspring don’t like it, blame their mother or mother and father if it was a joint decision, She/they is/are the one/ones who “just had to have a child’ and would do anything to get it.

Should there be a limit to how much money donors receive,

     Why? They are selling something someone else wants. We (unfortuately) do not regulate the cost of essentials like housing or food. This is a non-necessary expediture ergo leave to those who will sell and those who will buy.

or the number of times they donate?

   Or does these question really men how many times can a specific donor be used where it results in a birth.   Ramses II had over 100 children – all concieved without technology.    A cap would be resonable – 2000 would be too many but 100 could be acceptable is spread out through a poputaion of 300,000,000

And, in the Internet age, how much should donor children be allowed to know about their true genetic backgrounds?
�
            What does the Interent have to do with depriving donors of the promised anonymity. (With depriving anyone of privacy they wish tomaintain. There is nor “right” to know anything you want about anything or anyone.)

                      IF anything it argues in favor of zealously preserving their privacy if that is what they wish. Further since we don’t know the sepcific gene that causes cancers or heart disease or most other things, what would be the point of giving names?   The donor would ahve provided a medical history at the timeof the donation. That owuld be the kindof thing with questions about heart disease in the family, diabetes etc. Give them that – it is all that is really known.

Hosts Meghna Chakrabarti and Anthony Brooks introduce us to newsmakers, big thinkers and artists and bring us stories of relevance to Bostonians here and around the region. Live every weekday at 3.

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The Thorny Issues Of The Fertility Industry