Move over, Elon, another billionaire baby daddy is in town<\/p>\n
Pavel Durov is a Russian-born billionaire whose interests include doing half-naked photoshoots<\/a> with baby goats and having lots and lots of (human) kids. The 40-year-old billionaire founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram revealed last year\u2013 in a post on his own app<\/a> \u2013 that while he isn\u2019t married and prefers to live alone, he has over 100 biological children in 12 countries via sperm donation.<\/p>\n Durov\u2019s reproductive choices made headlines<\/a> again this week after the tech tycoon told the French political magazine Le Point<\/a> that he is going to leave his fortune, estimated at almost $14bn, to all of his children. Durov has six children he fathered naturally with three different partners as well as the children he has via sperm donation.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are all my children and will all have the same rights. I don\u2019t want them to tear each other apart after my death,\u201d he told Le Point.<\/p>\n What possessed Durov, who was charged last year in France<\/a> over allegations that Telegram is being used for illicit activity, to populate the world with so many mini-mes? (He has denied failing to cooperate<\/a> with authorities and Telegram has denied having poor moderation.) Well, like Elon Musk and a number of other tech types, Durov is a pronatalist who is worried about global fertility rates declining. He\u2019s chosen to take a hands-on approach to tackling the issue, funding free IVF treatments<\/a> for women at AltraVita IVF Clinic in Moscow<\/a> for anyone who uses his sperm. If you\u2019re interested, and I\u2019m sure that a lot of people will be now that Durov has laid out the terms of his will, he\u2019s still got sperm on ice at the clinic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Durov first donated his sperm over 15 years ago, in order to help a friend. Then, he said in his Telegram<\/a> post last year, he realised he ought to donate more widely. \u201cThe boss of the clinic told me that \u2018high quality donor material\u2019 was in short supply and that it was my civic duty to donate more sperm to anonymously help more couples,\u201d Durov said in the post. Durov added that he wants to \u201chelp destigmatize the whole notion of sperm donation and incentivize more healthy men to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Having used a sperm donor to conceive my own child, I\u2019m all for destigmatizing sperm donation. Particularly as there is a major lack of sperm donors<\/a> among certain demographics: at one point last year, for example, there were only a dozen Black sperm donors<\/a> at the four main cryobanks in the US.<\/p>\n But, and this is a very big but, there is an enormous difference between destigmatizing artificial insemination and one person thinking it is their \u201ccivic duty\u201d to conceive 100-plus children. Allowing a single individual to procreate so prolifically raises complex ethical issues. There\u2019s the possibility of accidental incest in the future, as well as the potential psychological impact that stems from someone discovering they have 100 siblings. There are also potential medical problems: earlier this year it was reported<\/a> that the sperm of a man with a rare cancer-causing mutation was used to conceive at least 67 children.<\/p>\n Is Durov even allowed to donate to so many different couples? The short answer is yes. The law regarding how many children can be conceived from one donor is complicated and varies from country to country. In places like France there are strict national limits while in the US (and Russia) there is no national law limiting the number of donations one person can make. Reputable cryobanks, however, do claim to have their own self-imposed limits. The European Sperm Bank applies a worldwide limit<\/a> of 75 families for each sperm donor. California Cryobank, one of the largest providers in the US, has said it tries to limit donations to about 25-30 families<\/a>.<\/p>\n However these cryobanks are also extremely expensive<\/a>, particularly after the pandemic, when shortages meant spermflation kicked in, and there is a completely unregulated market for sperm via Facebook groups and private websites where people can match with potential donors. This has allowed unscrupulous people like Jonathan Jacob Meijer of the Netherlands to father hundreds of children<\/a>.<\/p>\n As artificial insemination becomes more common, there is a desperate need to better regulate the industry and limit the number of children conceived from a single sperm donor. Indeed, Sweden, along with seven other countries including Belgium, raised the topic<\/a> with EU ministers this week. \u201cThis issue has been left unresolved for too long,\u201d an official from Belgium<\/a> <\/a><\/strong>told POLITICO, adding that an \u201cinternational limit is a first step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s hope that these limits get put in place sooner rather than later. Because I have an inkling that Elon Musk, who seems to be going a little off the rails<\/a>, might take all the chatter about Durov\u2019s progeny as a personal challenge.<\/p>\n New Rio law requires public hospitals to display anti-abortion signs<\/p>\n These include messages like: \u201cDid you know that the unborn child is discarded as hospital waste?\u201d The Guardian reports<\/a> that this is the \u201clatest example of a growing trend across Brazil<\/a> to further restrict access to abortion in a country that already has some of the world\u2019s most restrictive laws\u201d.<\/p>\n Melanoma cases rise in women under 50<\/p>\n The caveat here is that overdiagnosis could be contributing to this increasing. Per Axios<\/a>, one study \u201cfound that routine skin exams have increased and pathologists now more often classify ambiguous lesions as melanoma\u201d. (You should still get yourself checked and avoid tanning beds!)<\/p>\n US judge invalidates Biden rule protecting privacy for abortions<\/p>\n The judge who did this<\/a> is Matthew Kacsmaryk<\/a>, a Trump appointee who previously worked for a conservative Christian legal activist group and has made his anti-abortion views very clear.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to The Week in Patriarchy<\/p>\n Get\u00a0Arwa Mahdawi\u2019s\u00a0weekly recap of the most important stories on feminism and sexism and those fighting for equality<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Charlie Kirk encourages 14-year-old girl to get \u2018MRS degree\u2019<\/p>\n Hundreds of ambitious conservative women gathered at the Young Women\u2019s Leadership Summit<\/a> this week, an annual conference organized by the rightwing Turning Point USA. They wore buttons that said things like \u201cMy Favorite Season Is the Fall of Feminism\u201d and \u201cI Don\u2019t Need a Degree to Succeed\u201d while listening to inspiring lectures about how their real calling in life is to stay in the kitchen. At one point Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder, encouraged a high school freshman<\/a> to focus on husband-hunting rather than higher education. \u201cI think there\u2019s an argument to bring back the \u2018MRS degree\u2019,\u201d Kirk said.<\/p>\n Netanyahu is using Muslim women\u2019s \u2018rights\u2019 to justify his Iran war<\/p>\n We\u2019ve got to bomb the oppressed brown women in order to liberate them, don\u2019t you understand? Mona Eltahawy looks at the weaponization of women\u2019s rights<\/a> to justify war from Afghanistan to Iran.<\/p>\n More and more women are doing strength training<\/p>\n In 2024, weightlifting was the fastest-growing sport among American women. Vox looks at changing body ideals and the way in which<\/a> strength training ushers in \u201ca world that promises to make women bigger instead of smaller\u201d.<\/p>\n Kai Trump had a go at being a regular old pleb<\/p>\n The president\u2019s granddaughter, clearly inspired by Trump\u2019s fake shift at McDonald\u2019s<\/a> last year, posted a video of herself \u201cworking\u201d at Dunkin\u2019 Donuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n The week in pawtriarchy<\/p>\n A wild monkey in Hong Kong recently went viral after getting filmed tearing up a sign telling people not to feed the animals<\/a>. While no monkeys were available for comment, I suspect this may be a case of gorilla warfare.<\/p>\n