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Posted July 20, 2010 to photo album "The Future of Sperm"
The reproductive technology at the heart of The Kids Are All Right is, as Joel Bleifuss reports, part of the wild and wacky history around artificial insemination.
Slide 7: The Marketing of the New Family
Today, 126 years later, the sperm market is a big, if selective, business. Only 1 or 2 percent of men who want to sell their sperm are accepted as sperm contributors—like those in the Xytex Cyro International Sperm Bank advert above. TSBC (The Sperm Bank of California) established in 1982, sells a vial of sperm for $605 (after you pay the $100 registration fee).
The man who is accepted as a viable contributor (no men under 5’7” need apply) receives five benefits:
- You receive free ongoing health screening throughout your participation in the donor program.
- You learn about your fertility and genetic history.
- You are paid $100 for every ejaculate that meets our minimum sperm count.
- You are paid $500 when you complete the exit blood test, which is required six months after you retire from the program.
- You help someone have the family they always wanted.
However, if you live in the European Union, you will have shop elsewhere. The EU regulates its sperm market, and Denmark is the sperm bank leader, partly because, unlike England, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, the country allows contributors to remain anonymous.
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