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Simon has two sons, aged 15 and 13, from a failed marriage, who live with him, and a six-year-old daughter from a later broken relationship, who lives with her mother. The 37-year-old divorced former business manager thinks he has a further five children, aged between two months and six years, living in Britain and another eight in countries including Australia, South Africa, Poland and Spain. He admits it could be more, but he plays no part in their upbringing — emotionally or financially — and has absolutely no desire to.

‘If, when they turn 18, they turn up at my door wanting to know who I am, then they would be more than welcome,’ he says blithely. ‘But I am not their father in the true sense of the word and never will be.’ Simon is a freelance sperm donor who offers what he jokingly calls his ‘magic potion’ over the internet to women desperate for children.

They make contact on various internet forums, where women post adverts seeking sperm donors or respond to his posts offering his services. He says the majority of his clients — more than 50 per cent — are lesbian couples, around 40 per cent are single women hoping to beat the biological clock and the rest are heterosexual couples where the man is infertile.

Simon is doing nothing illegal. By offering fresh instead of frozen sperm, his activities fall outside the regulations laid down by the Human Fertilisation And Embryology Authority, which governs licensed sperm banks.

'I'm not doing it for the money. I want to help people who can't afford to use a fertility clinic' Countless appointments have been suddenly postponed because one of Simon’s ladies is ovulating and he is urgently required elsewhere. One day he’s in Bognor Regis on the South Coast; the next in Sheffield, the day after he’s needed in Colchester, Essex. On his travels, he carries his ‘kit’ — a sterile plastic pot in which to deposit his sperm and some sterile syringes for the women to inseminate themselves with, without needing a turkey baster.

But if you were desperate for a child, would Simon’s DNA appeal? A tall, lean, friendly man opens the door to a small, messy detached house littered with his sons’ musical instruments and other teenage detritus. Blond and blue-eyed, the initial impression is of a slightly flaky hippy; an unconventional laid-back character who prefers life in the slow lane.

But appearances can be deceptive. ‘I don’t smoke, I don’t take drugs, I hardly drink and we don’t have junk food in the house. I won’t even eat sausages,’ he says sipping on fresh mint tea. A health and fitness fanatic, he swims, runs and is converting his garage into a gym. His body is clearly a temple. Single since his last relationship broke down last year, he’s lacked the time and energy to commit to another. With two broken relationships behind him, he’s not sure if he’s cut out for marriage.

He used to be the manager of an award-winning aromatherapy firm, which was founded by his Greek-born mother, Franzesca. Simon, who was privately educated and studied aeroplane mechanics in Canada after school, held the position for eight years until he decided he didn’t want to work 65-hour weeks.

Now, he does not work and lives frugally, eking out the savings he amassed during his business career. Simon’s house is owned by his parents, who have retired abroad, so there is no mortgage to pay. He claims to charge around £50 for each sperm donation, plus his expenses — little more than he’d receive if he donated through a clinic. So why bother?

‘I’m not doing it for the money,’ he says. ‘I want to help people who can’t afford to use a fertility clinic. My family, including my parents, know about the sperm donation. My father, who paid a fair amount for my education, keeps saying: “I want my money back.” ’ Given that Simon is not prone to self-analysis, it is hard to unravel what his motives are for becoming a freelance sperm donor. What’s in it for him?

‘I’d read there was a shortage of sperm donors and, though I had two boys, I’d always wanted three kids, so it seemed a good idea.’ Simon applied to an NHS fertility clinic attached to a teaching hospital in London and after undergoing a barrage of medical tests to ensure he carried no sexual or hereditary diseases, he was accepted as a donor. His GP records were also checked for a history of psychiatric illness.

He was paid £20 plus expenses each time, but has no idea if any of this sperm — screened and then frozen for storage — produced any children. When, in 2002, Simon met his last partner, a Korean languages student, he put the sperm donation on hold, but resumed it shortly after the birth of their daughter. He says this was with his partner’s blessing, but not long after, she moved out with their little girl. ‘She didn’t get on with my sons and it was easier for everyone if we lived apart, but we were still together,’ explains Simon. ‘Then she met someone else.’

Simon denies it was a mid-life crisis that drew him back to sperm donation. He says he does not quiz his clients as to why they want children and would only rule someone out if they were obviously mentally unstable. 'It's better than getting pregnant by a stranger in a nightclub. You can’t ask about sexual health or hereditary diseases in those circumstances, can you?'

‘If people have gone to the trouble of finding a sperm donor, then they’ve usually thought hard about it and I know the child will be wanted,’ says Simon, adding that months of communications often take place before he donates sperm. ‘Most of the people I deal with seem pretty normal.’ This sounds slightly cavalier and he admits that sometimes couples break up before he gets round to donating sperm. But Simon insists he is not reckless.

Every three months, he pays £200 for a full sexual health check at his local genito-urinary clinic and another £35 for a letter for his clients stating he has tested negative for HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea. ‘Well, it’s better than getting pregnant by a stranger in a nightclub, isn’t it?’ he says. ‘You can’t ask about sexual health or hereditary diseases in those circumstances, can you?’

Simon will travel anywhere in the country to meet the women who contact him. Some reject him, some change their minds and some choose him after they are satisfied he is suitable and will not pop up later on demanding parental rights. Some he rejects. Some women never conceive. ‘I had one heterosexual couple where the man had undergone a vasectomy, which could not be reversed,’ says Simon. ‘This was a second marriage; he already had children from his first and he wanted her to be able to have children. I also had a single woman who contacted me, but I had to turn her down as she was looking for a co-parent.

‘I am still in contact with one lesbian couple who had a child by me. They send me photos of the boy, who’s five, and I speak to him on the phone. He calls me Dad. ‘I have no yearning to see the child. I’m happy to send Christmas and birthday cards or letters, if that is what the family wants, but nothing more than that.’

Simon has also helped a single woman who already had one child conceived with sperm from another donor, who declined to help her a second time. She was desperate for a sibling. Another young woman asked Simon to be her donor because her family had a history of early hysterectomies due to cancer and — because she had yet to meet a suitable partner — she wanted to have a child sooner rather than risk delaying.

Of the lesbian couples he has helped, he says one partner has sometimes had children from a previous heterosexual relationship, but wanted her new female partner to be able to have a child too. 'I never wanted to be involved in the lives of these children but I have a responsibility to them' Since a change in the law, sperm donors no longer have the right to anonymity, but Simon is happy for any offspring to know his identity. ‘I never wanted to be involved in the lives of these children,’ says Simon. ‘But I have a responsibility to them, if they want to know who their biological father is. But I’m not expecting them to throw their arms around me crying “Dad”.’

Furthermore, what’s to prevent his offspring meeting one day, unaware they are related and forming a relationship? The Human Fertilisation And Embryology Authority (HFEA) regulations state that donor sperm should result in no more than ten births to reduce this risk. But Simon helps on average one person or couple a week — sometimes donating sperm more than once to these clients, typically two or three times.

There are other potential problems, too. Men who donate through a sperm bank are legally protected from any financial claims on. Simon has no such protection so any of his sperm-donated children could make a claim on him or his estate following his death. But he seems blind to the potential hazards. Instead, he naively prefers to think of his offspring as a big global happy family. He imagines all these half-siblings meeting one day and forging friendships.

Not unlike his mother’s Greek family in Andros where, he says, you can’t walk down the street without someone pointing out a first or second cousin twice removed. It doesn’t cross Simon’s mind that his offspring might grow up angry, confused or unhappy over the circumstances of their birth. He says that can and does happen in more conventional families, anyway.

‘There’s no point in worrying about things in the future, which may never happen,’ says Simon cheerily. ‘I’d rather sit in my garden playing my guitar.’

Article extracts from: www.dailymail.co.uk 28th July 2011

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A mother and son were devastated to find out the man who donated sperm for his conception had a genetic illness - and they were never warned. Rebecca Blackwell and her 18-year-old son Tyler of Maryland tracked down sperm donor ‘John’ three years ago.

While he didn't respond to their letter for contact, John's sister found them online via Ancestry.com and, unaware her brother had donated sperm, asked why they wanted to get in touch. When she found out he had a son, she told them of the fatal genetic disorder that had ruptured John's aorta at the age of 43.

She said John, two brothers and their mother all had an 'unnamed, never before seen genetic mutation' disorder, the 59-year-old special education teacher told MailOnline. John's father, who didn't die from the aortic dissection suffered a stroke due to a lack of oxygen to the brain, Ms Blackwell said. John also has a family condition of the connective tissue disorder Marfan's Syndrome.

‘Tyler had a time bomb ticking in his chest,’ she said. ‘It didn't occur to anyone to tell us.’ Though Tyler has since had surgery on the defect in June, questions are raised as to the Blackwells weren't informed.

The fertility industry in the United States is one of the most unregulated in the developed world, said Wendy Kramer of the Donor Sibling Registry, a group that has matched some 8,400 donor offspring with their half siblings and/or donors. ‘There are no rules or regulations about donor identification, testing donors, monitoring numbers of children or medical records,’ she said.

Ms Kramer conceived her own son via sperm donation. ‘No one is watching. There are no laws. They don't keep track.’ But laws are changing. Come Friday, Washington is set to be the first state to give donor-conceived people the right to crucial health information about their biological parents when they turn eighteen. Previously, they were not entitled to any information and medical records were rarely updated.

Advocated say the new law is imperfect but it's a 'first step' in allowing these children to be nationally recognised. There are approximately 1 million children in the US born via a sperm donor. Law at present requires donors only be screened for sexually transmitted diseases and some communicable diseases.

Advocates say there should also be testing for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease and Fragile X syndrome. Advocates say the anonymous donors, identifiable only by number, should end. When a donor develops a genetic disease after donation, families are very rarely told, according Ms Kramer. In a case in California, a donor passed on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy to nine of his 22 known offspring -one died, she said. A 3-year-old developed Rasmussen's encephalitis, resulting in seizures and brain damage.

‘[John] should never have been a sperm donor,’ Ms Kramer told ABC. ‘How could such a thing happen in this era of medical advances and an explosion of genomic information about the causes and inheritance of disease, especially in the most medical advanced country in the world?’ 'When the clinic goes out of business and where are those records?’ Washington reproductive lawyer Mark Demaray asked. ‘There are many practical problems.’

It is far better fregulated in the case of adopted children - all social and medical records are kept by the courts - but not with sperm donation. ‘Tyler is fine now,’ said his mother. ‘He's got an ugly scar on his chest, but he's a girl magnet.’ The single mother has since found out another of his half-siblings who live's in Seattle has the same disorder . She worries about how many more of John's children may have the condition.

‘Sperm banks need to make an effort to collect updated medical information every couple of years,’ said Ms Blackwell. ‘They made no effort until I came up with a problem. And I don't think sperm donors should be anonymous.' 'We didn't get to the truth until his sister called me. It shouldn't be secret.’ ‘There is no one who knew about it,’ she said. ‘If I could foretell the future, I would have picked a different donor. I didn't know.’

Article: 21st July 2011 www.dailymail.co.uk

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FREE Seminar: Limited places still available

Co-parenting and using a known donor
Ever considering co-parenting or finding a known donor to conceive? How will the anonymity law affect any future children? Find out more about the practicalities, finding a donor through a website, legal considerations and treatment options available.

Talk: Co-parenting and using a known donor

Date: Sunday 3rd July

Time: 11.00 -13.00

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He donated sperm every week for three years when he was a cash-strapped college student 20 years ago, and now Todd Whitehurst is still counting his children.

Four years ago, Mr Whitehurst, from New York, got an email from a girl named Virginia. Mr Whitehurst, a 45-year-old medical engineer, said: 'She said, basically, "I'm 14, and I think I'm your daughter".' Shortly after, he found a son, Tyler, who is now 14. Then he found another, Gavin, now 16. That led to another child, and another, and yet another.

He said: 'It was definitely overwhelming. I'm not even sure how many children there are.' So far he has found nine children sired by his sperm. Statistically speaking, said one biogeneticist, Mr Whitehurst could be the father of 42 to 60 children.

Because of a lack of industry regulation, high totals are all too probable, especially for prolific college kids like Mr Whitehurst. He was paid $50 a time at a clinic on the Stanford University campus in the 1980s and 1990s.

A web site set up for the children of sperm donors has discovered a number of 'superdads' who have fathered dozens, sometimes hundreds, of children. One top seed in Virginia has sired 129 kids and still counting, according to the Donor Sibling Registry, a nonprofit that helps connect families with biological fathers and siblings, the New York Post reports.

Wendy Kramer, a mother to a sperm-donor child, started the online registry when her son began asking questions about his father. She said one donor in the Boston area has been traced to 72 kids.

She added that the registry has found 92 groups of 10 or more offspring, and 336 groups that have up to nine siblings. There's no limit on how many banks a donor can sell his sperm to and about 21 per cent of donor fathers have given to more than one, according to Mrs Kramer.

Albert Anouna, director of Biogenetics and Sperm Bank of New York, cryo clinics should destroy a donor's sperm after it has produced about ten live births. Birth numbers are self-reported by pregnant mothers, which he admits is an incomplete and inconsistent system.

Compounding the problem, donors are screened so that the most fertile get selected, because high sperm count is most likely to produce a pregnancy. High-performers who rack up many pregnancies are among the most popular donors selected by women.

'Up until 1999, physicians could order a pool of vials for their patients,' he said. 'They'd come in and the doctor would say, "This one works fine - it's already gotten three women pregnant. Why don't you try it?"'

Mr Whitehurst is one of a handful of donor dads to step forward and connect with his children. Describing the moment he received that first email from Virginia, he said: 'It was pretty wild. She had my donor number, which I hadn't ever given anybody.

'She sent a picture. She looked a lot like me.' He emailed her back, and Virginia encouraged him to go to the Donor Sibling Registry. His donor number immediately turned up two other families, and later, three more. One of his donor mothers actually has three kids from his semen.

A few years ago, Mr Whitehurst, who has two kids from a previous marriage, travelled to meet Virginia, Tyler and Gavin. Now Tyler and Gavin frequently contact him by phone and emails and phone calls with him. Mr Whitehurst said: 'It's been a wonderful and enriching experience, and I am very happy that I have met them.'

Article: 20th June 2011 www.dailymail.co.uk

Read more about known sperm and egg donation and donors keeping in touch with their children at www.prideangel.com

A 15-year old boy secretly donated sperm to his aunt's lesbian partner so they could have children, his parents have discovered.

Charlie Lowden's parents Charles and Lynn are now coming to terms with the fact that the two children they considered to be their nephew and niece are actually their biological grandchildren.

They only discovered the family secret last December after Charlie, 20, died following a routine hernia operation.

After his death it emerged that several years previously he offered to donate sperm - unofficially - to his aunt Sarah Ashman, now 40, who is his mother's younger sister, and her partner Claire, now 30.

He knew they had wanted to have a baby, but Claire had suffered a miscarriage after becoming pregnant by another donor. Claire Ashman, a beautician from Choppington in Northumberland, subsequently gave birth to a boy, Carlton, now five.

Three years later they asked him to donate again, which he did, resulting in Sarah, who is now two.

The lesbian couple agreed to keep Charlie's true identity as the father under wraps. However, his death forced his aunt to confess the situation to her sister.

Mrs Lowden, 52, said: "When our Charles died we were broken hearted. We thought we had nothing left of him. But there is. "I just wish that we had known about all of this before he died so that Charlie could know we had accepted it."

She continued: "When Charlie died, Sarah said I had no idea how special he had been to her – but now I do." Despite Carlton being "the spitting double" of his father, Mrs Lowden said she remained "quite oblivious" to the truth.

Even though Charlie used to grab the boy, hold him up to the mirror and laugh, "Who’s the daddy? I’m the daddy", Mrs Lowden still did not realise what he was saying.

The couple had wanted to call the boy Charles, but he refused, so they chose Carlton as a cipher name instead.

Sarah Ashman, who entered a civil partnership with Claire last year after 13 years together, said: "Charles was very special to me. He was great. When he died, it was our secret. But I had to tell Lynn. I couldn’t go through life not telling her because they are her grandchildren."

Mrs Lowden described knowing Carlton was her grandson as "just like having our Charlie back". "We’ve got the next best thing to him and it’s not a secret anymore," she said. "I’m absolutely delighted. He did it for a reason and he has left a legacy."

The secret father, a scaffolder, died last December after being discharged from Hexham General Hospital in Northumberland following a hernia operation. His parents claim he was not given protection against blood clots. His parents have launched legal proceedings.

Jim Mackey, chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Mr Lowden died of a rare complication of surgery which we have fully investigated. "Our report, which we have shared with Mr Lowden’s family, showed areas of care where we felt we could improve and we have now implemented those improvements." A pre-inquest hearing is due to take place on January 20.

"Unofficial" sperm donation between individuals is not illegal, a spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said. But not using a licensed clinic means the donor remains the legal father, he warned. When carried out officially, sperm donors should be between 18 and 45

Pride Angel added 'If a known donor donates to a lesbian couple who are in a civil partnership at the time of conception, then the sperm donor would not be classed as the child's legal father'.

For more information about finding a known donor or donating to a lesbian couple visit www.prideangel.com

A FRIEND recently revealed he had fathered a baby. No cigars though, just a carefully worded statement. "I have been told there is a pregnancy, but I don't know the mother, or when the baby will be born."

Say again? My friend explained that after 20 years of thinking about it, he had become a sperm donor. Which made the whole thing a bit tricky. Is a pregnancy something a donor also gets to celebrate?

My friend saw my dilemma and said he wasn't going to have children of his own and at least now he would have the satisfaction of knowing he had helped a family achieve its dream.

That is a generosity of spirit I hadn't considered before. We often sing the praises of organ donors, but who gives thanks to the sperm donors?

My friend said the journey wasn't easy and there were the doubts: "Am I up to the job fertility-wise? Will I feel too old if a child seeks contact 20 years later? What would my partner and family think about it?"

He admitted it was a tug on the heartstrings knowing that he would never be more than a donor number and that another man would be the father of any children.

But just the same, he gained a lot of satisfaction from the thought that any parent who went down the track of IVF was "OK in my books".

"Full marks to any man who consents to accept donor sperm as part of his efforts to become a father. And praise to his partner for helping him through such a time," he said.

I was so touched by his motivation and how deeply he had considered all the factors and yet I think most of us take the whole process of sperm donation for something to even snigger about, to our shame. The fact is many IVF clinics desperately need more donors.

You need to be altruistic -- as there is no payment -- and committed, because new laws now require a lot more effort. And, disappointingly, all accessing IVF must now have criminal record checks and counselling sessions.

Donors must also accept that any child born can make contact with them when they turn 18.

Some may struggle with that, but my friend said, if anything, that helped his decision to become a sperm donor. "Everyone has the right to know their genetic heritage," he offered.

In my mind requiring a criminal record consent is an insult and only adds a further layer of stress to couples already doing it tough.

Dr Russell Dalton, director of Ballarat IVF, called for some debate about it. Perhaps the new State Government can look at this. Over to you, Mr Baillieu.

Article: 19th December 2010 www.hearaldsun.com.au

Ever thought about donating sperm to single women, lesbian and infertile couples through personal arrangement? visit www.prideangel.com

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Looking for a sperm donor, egg donor or co-parent? visit www.prideangel.com

Take a Break have recently covered an article revealing sperm donors who offer natural insemination (or sexual intercourse) to single and lesbian women. Their investigation into unregulated sperm donors gets deeper.

Take a Break tracked them down on Britain’s top social network Facebook. The group is called ‘Help Find Suitable FREE Sperm Donors in the UK’. Also other groups called ‘Lesbian Seeking Sperm’ and an online group ‘Support Sperm Donation’.

Sperm donors revealed include:
Rod, of Liverpool
Describes himself as: Donor from near Liverpool, looking for other couples and singles to help, 6ft 3” tall, slim build, blue eyes, brown hair, clean, professional.
Requests: assisted artificial insemination (with a helping hand)

Leroy 43, Eastbourne, East Sussex.
Member of 10 Facebook sperm donation groups
Requests: natural insemination

Dave, 31, near Seattle, USA
Member of online group ‘Need a sperm donor to complete our family’
Requests: natural insemination

Derek, 36, Northampton
Member of online group ‘Lesbian Seeking Sperm’
Derek says: I am a 36 year old sperm donor based in Northamptonshire UK. If you would like to get in touch to discuss any requirements you may have or any questions please get in touch and we can decide if I am suitable to help.
Requests: natural insemination

Alan, 36, Manchester
Requests: natural insemination

Andrew, Cambridge
Member of the online group ‘Support Sperm Donation’
Andrew says: How much can I earn donating sperm? I have a lot of spare time on my hands. I think this would be an enjoyable/profitable way to prevent my boredom.
Requests: natural insemination

Giwrgos, 26, Athens, Greece
Requests: natural insemination
Giwrgos says: I only donate to people who are not able to have kids. All the rest pay a heavy fee of 2000euros. Prices normally go from 12K-50K. In some cases even 100K. It’s better to come with cash, however we will get you 100 per cent pregnant before we have to exchange anything.

Pride Angel
Pride Angel is the only connection site to continually monitor member’s profiles and acts upon all ‘report abuse’ comments, to help provide a safer site for connecting genuine sperm donors and co-parents. Sperm donors must abide by the following items within our ‘Code of Conduct’:

Donors must not offer natural insemination to recipients
Donors must not request payment for donations (other than reasonable expenses)
Donors must not donate to numerous women

Suspect a sperm donor? Report them!
Any member who suspects that any of the above sperm donors are offering their services within Pride Angel, or any other sperm donors are breaking the 'Code of Conduct' are requested to report them using the ‘Report Abuse’ button.

www.prideangel.com

Many men and women who long for a baby - but are beset by fertility problems - will read with envy the news that Samantha Cameron has given birth to a baby girl and say a silent prayer that they too will be so blessed.

Yet the fact remains that, in many cases, their prayers will not be answered because of a chronic shortage in the number of people willing to donate eggs or sperm to help them conceive.

This week's announcement that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will review its policy on paying sperm and egg donors raises, yet again, the issue of how we reconcile questions of need, knowledge and ethics.

In my view, the review is no bad thing. Sometimes we have to go back to the drawing board, if only to decide the first design was the best one. I firmly believe we should not pay people to be donors.

Let's be clear what this is about. One in seven couples has fertility problems, causing untold heartache. They have planned the nursery in their dreams and watched their friends completing their lives with children, but have to face the news that it won't be so easy - if at all possible - for them.

After trying in vain, they seek advice, and all the time the clock is ticking, especially as women are leaving it later to start attempting to conceive. They may seek IVF, at which point they may discover that the problem is within one of them, in terms of producing eggs or sperm.

So they turn to the idea of donation. Yet some fertility clinics have waiting lists of up to two years, because of the shortage of donated eggs and sperm. That is why some couples go abroad as 'fertility tourists' to get what they need. Or even buy sperm over the internet.

Needless to say, the HFEA is worried about this situation, which would almost certainly be improved by paying donors. At the moment that is banned; the altruistic men and women who donate are rewarded with £250 to cover loss of earnings.

But in Spain donors get £740 for each cycle of eggs and there is no shortage of women coming forward. So what would happen if the ceiling were to be raised?

Donors could be paid thousands for eggs and sperm, as in America where good looks in donors are coveted. What a tawdry transaction it would be - for wannabe parents to fork out a fortune for donor services, insisting on a blue- eyed girl or athletic boy or a donor with a PhD. It hardly bears thinking about. Yet it could happen, which is why experts like Mr Tony Rutherford, chairman of the British Fertility Society, are worried

After all, he argues, if financial gain became the principle inducement, why not pay the going rate?

It raises the disturbing prospect of people selling their eggs and sperm as they might a used car or old table on eBay. Yet we are talking about babies, little human beings.

At the centre of any debate stands that truth: this is not about commodities, but people.

believe the dignity of parents, donors and the unborn would be threatened by introducing marketplace values.

The HFEA website advises: 'To donate can be a life-changing decision. Understand your rights, responsibilities and the implications of this altruistic act.'

There we have it - enshrined (for now) at the heart of the HFEA's purpose. Altruism is a selfless concern for the well-being of others. It doesn't ask: 'What's in it for me?'

'Isn't the answer not to increase the reward but to increase the altruism?' It focuses on doing good - the highest aim a human being can have. Altruism is mistrusted by cynics, but never fails to lift the heart. Can there be a gene for altruism?

If so, it would please me, as a parent, to know that my child had inherited it. Given all the heart-ache involved with fertility treatment, one shining light has been the selfless generosity of anonymous men and women who want to use their good fortune (as fertile beings) to help those who are not. That's a motivation beyond price.

Other issues will be involved in the HFEA's review, leading to a three-month public consultation that will start in January (to take part, email donationreview@hfea.gov.uk).

One change might be to allow donated sperm to be used to start up to 20 families, rather than the current limit of ten. But that would not be needed if there were more donors.

Isn't the answer not to increase the reward but to increase the altruism? To me, £250 does seem too low and to double the amount would not be unreasonable in the current economic climate.

But what if the HFEA also began a skilful marketing campaign to encourage donors? I believe that not enough young people know how to go about being a donor and what is involved.

They might not understand their right to anonymity, for example - in April 2005 sperm and egg donors lost their right to this.

It's not beyond the HFEA to set that matter straight and spread the word that donation is a marvellous thing to do. Let the authority weigh up all the issues - but then, I hope, conclude that it has had the principle right all along.

Article: by Bell Mooney 26th August 2010 www.dailymail.co.uk

Considering donating sperm or eggs? looking for a donor? Read more at www.prideangel.com

A controversial dating website, with a strict ban on ugly and fat people, has launched what it's calling a 'beautiful baby service', a virtual egg and sperm bank for people who want to have attractive babies.

This same website kicked out 5,000 users in January because other members signaled that they became too chubby celebrating Christmas and the New Year.

Critics are questioning the ethics of the site but those running it are making no apologies.

The site says its "beautiful baby service" is open to everyone. The founder said 'even 'ugly people' would like to bring good looking children into the world. But one British watchdog group says cherry picking pretty people as parents, is just wrong.

"It's a symptom of a very dangerous tendency in our society that says we can take control of everything to do with reproduction and have it exactly the way we want it," said Dr. David King from Human Genetics Alert.

While there is a need for providing a service for single, gay, lesbian and infertile couples to have children, this website seems to be heading towards eugenics and the creation of designer babies, which is very concerning.

Pride Angel the leading website connection service for gay, lesbian, single and infertile couples wishing to become parents said ‘Websites seem to be offering sperm donors services like dating agencies with little thought to the serious consequences of not being aware of all the important factors which need careful consideration, when undertaking donor conception, such as sexually transmitted disease screening, the legal rights of the donor or co-parent and ultimately the right of the child to have information about their donor’.

Not only this, but many other websites allow donors to offer their services using natural insemination (sexual intercourse) and even request money for their services. ‘We at Pride Angel carefully monitor all our members profiles to ensure that they are genuine and restrict the number of contacts made between donors and recipients, helping to ensure that particular donors are not donating to numerous women, something which is of great concern for any child born to have numerous unknown siblings’. ‘We also advise all our members to use HFEA regulated fertility clinics for treatment’.

Read more about donating sperm or finding a sperm donor or co-parent at www.prideangel.com