stream of consciousness for the win!

[flamingophoenix]

My Father Was An Anonymous Sperm Donor. No, not my father, the father of the article writer.

I see her point, especially about sperm donation, but I'm worried that people will make the same point about single women adopting, which when you think about the alternatives (for example, an orphanage in Romania) seems like a pretty damn good deal for

Comments

[hulkingmanchild]

One thing to be careful about, with sperm donation -- about a year and a half ago, a case hit the newswaves about a sperm donor who was being sued by the mother of their child for child support payments! From what I recall, the two were an ex-couple, but the donor had no interest in becoming a father, and his relationship to the mother was now platonic. When the mother lost her job, though, she hired an attorney to collect on several years' backlog of child support payments that had never been part of the original agreement. The question became: if the mother won this case, would all recipients of non-anonymous sperm donation be able to be held legally responsible for the financial welfare of a child they had no connection to, or even knowledge of?

Long story short, the question is still in the air. State laws protect some donors but not others, or require sperm banks to collect personal information on donors. Depending on where in the country you live, you may or may not be able to be held financially responsible for the children you father! Eliminating anonymous donations could (potentially -- this seems like a Jerry Springer-esque idea) lead to women electing to have in-vitro fertilization specifically to target donor fathers for child support payments.