While you will, eventually, receive £35 towards your expenses, this is not immediate. It is not like someone can walk out with the money in cash, so the usefulness of this for some who really needs the money immediately is reduced.
For now, anonymity is going away. There is no reason to believe that this isn’t a first step for a country with a legal system that can hardly be considered father friendly.
So, the answer is stop donating. We don’t need more children and your sperm can legally be used to create ten.
It’s like they don’t want British sperm donors. I can understand wanting to be able to give the kid medical histories and stuff but why the rest?
So, according to the article, you already aren’t anonymous and haven’t been since 2005, and that isn’t changing. The new proposed rules are that fertility clinics are legally obligated to tell you that you aren’t completely anonymous, and that you can be found through other private DNA services. There’s also some stuff about embryonic research etc. but it doesn’t really relate to the headline.
The reason that it’s all coming up **now** is because the first people born from sperm/egg donation since 2005 are turning 18 this year, and thus will have the right to know.
Why would anyone donate sperm? Why would you want to impregnate someone you don’t know and then have some random people you don’t know raising your kid.
I would understand if the money was decent but for £35…is that how much your DNA and legacy is worth?
This law makes sense. If you are going to be found anyway when these children use private DNA databases then they *should* be obligated to warn you that you aren’t really anonymous.
This is just another reason I’ve asked my immediate family to never use these DNA services. It’s scary that you can’t protect yourself if your estranged cousin decides to buy one of these kits.
As I said the last time this story cropped up, if I were a donor I would assume there is a good chance of the child finding me anyway regardless of what laws are in place. Information is cheap, and people are tenacious.
>There is a huge shortage of sperm donation in the UK. As a result, there are now long waiting lists of people who need your help.
Oh cool, big shortage huh, would be nice to help, guess they’ve worked hard to build a [good system](https://www.spermdonation.nhs.uk/) which makes it easy to become a donor right?
>It is against the law for us to pay sperm donors for their donation. However, we are able to offer you compensation of £35 towards expenses for each visit to our sperm donation clinic, which is paid at the end of the process.
Ok well that’s not great.
>When donating sperm to the NHS your details will never be made available to the recipients. However, once they turn 18, any child born as a result of you donating sperm would have the potential to contact you via the HFEA.
Ok details are never revealed except in the only case where it actually matters.
>Providing you are suitable, you will be asked to attend our sperm donation clinic in London once or twice a week for between five and ten weeks to produce sperm samples. This means you will be donating sperm a total up to 15 times.
Aaaaaaaaand it’s crushingly intensive as a process. (They also don’t mention in this paragraph you have to “save up” for 4 days before donating so it’s basically monogamy with the clinic for the donation period).
Well done NHS! Great system you have there, it’s sure working well.
Easy solution: Don’t donate. Let the stocks run dry and see if that forces a policy shift.
Pretty sure I’ve got a few socks pregnant over the years.
Honestly I struggle to put myself in the shoes of someone wanting to donate. Of course for a woman donating eggs is wayyy more complicated and painful than just donating sperm. But the idea that random people will raise a child that comes from me is off putting. Never knowing if that child even had a good life. And then the chance that a young person could potentially want to meet me when I would absolutely hate that? Now it’s too late but I don’t think there ever was a situation in which I would have donated. Maybe for men there is more disconnect?
People from medc countries emigrate here so I fail to see your point ?
That’s a good way to significantly reduce the amount of people donating. I’m not sure why you would want to do that, but that’s what will happen.
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While you will, eventually, receive £35 towards your expenses, this is not immediate. It is not like someone can walk out with the money in cash, so the usefulness of this for some who really needs the money immediately is reduced.
For now, anonymity is going away. There is no reason to believe that this isn’t a first step for a country with a legal system that can hardly be considered father friendly.
So, the answer is stop donating. We don’t need more children and your sperm can legally be used to create ten.
It’s like they don’t want British sperm donors. I can understand wanting to be able to give the kid medical histories and stuff but why the rest?
So, according to the article, you already aren’t anonymous and haven’t been since 2005, and that isn’t changing. The new proposed rules are that fertility clinics are legally obligated to tell you that you aren’t completely anonymous, and that you can be found through other private DNA services. There’s also some stuff about embryonic research etc. but it doesn’t really relate to the headline.
The reason that it’s all coming up **now** is because the first people born from sperm/egg donation since 2005 are turning 18 this year, and thus will have the right to know.
Why would anyone donate sperm? Why would you want to impregnate someone you don’t know and then have some random people you don’t know raising your kid.
I would understand if the money was decent but for £35…is that how much your DNA and legacy is worth?
This law makes sense. If you are going to be found anyway when these children use private DNA databases then they *should* be obligated to warn you that you aren’t really anonymous.
This is just another reason I’ve asked my immediate family to never use these DNA services. It’s scary that you can’t protect yourself if your estranged cousin decides to buy one of these kits.
As I said the last time this story cropped up, if I were a donor I would assume there is a good chance of the child finding me anyway regardless of what laws are in place. Information is cheap, and people are tenacious.
>There is a huge shortage of sperm donation in the UK. As a result, there are now long waiting lists of people who need your help.
Oh cool, big shortage huh, would be nice to help, guess they’ve worked hard to build a [good system](https://www.spermdonation.nhs.uk/) which makes it easy to become a donor right?
>It is against the law for us to pay sperm donors for their donation. However, we are able to offer you compensation of £35 towards expenses for each visit to our sperm donation clinic, which is paid at the end of the process.
Ok well that’s not great.
>When donating sperm to the NHS your details will never be made available to the recipients. However, once they turn 18, any child born as a result of you donating sperm would have the potential to contact you via the HFEA.
Ok details are never revealed except in the only case where it actually matters.
>Providing you are suitable, you will be asked to attend our sperm donation clinic in London once or twice a week for between five and ten weeks to produce sperm samples. This means you will be donating sperm a total up to 15 times.
Aaaaaaaaand it’s crushingly intensive as a process. (They also don’t mention in this paragraph you have to “save up” for 4 days before donating so it’s basically monogamy with the clinic for the donation period).
Well done NHS! Great system you have there, it’s sure working well.
Easy solution: Don’t donate. Let the stocks run dry and see if that forces a policy shift.
Pretty sure I’ve got a few socks pregnant over the years.
Honestly I struggle to put myself in the shoes of someone wanting to donate. Of course for a woman donating eggs is wayyy more complicated and painful than just donating sperm. But the idea that random people will raise a child that comes from me is off putting. Never knowing if that child even had a good life. And then the chance that a young person could potentially want to meet me when I would absolutely hate that? Now it’s too late but I don’t think there ever was a situation in which I would have donated. Maybe for men there is more disconnect?
People from medc countries emigrate here so I fail to see your point ?
That’s a good way to significantly reduce the amount of people donating. I’m not sure why you would want to do that, but that’s what will happen.