January 13, 2016

"Usually one [baby] a week pops out. I reckon I've got about 800 so far, so within four years I'd like to crack 1,000."

"I've got kids all the way from Spain to Taiwan, so many countries. I'd like to get the world record ever, make sure no-one's going to break it, get as many as possible."
"If you go to a fertility clinic people have to go through lots of hurdles - counselling sessions, huge amounts of tests and then charge absolute fortunes for the service - but realistically if you've got a private donor you can just go and see them, meet them somewhere, get what you want and just go," he explains.

25 comments:

Fernandinande said...

7 Million People Direct Descendants Of Single Smooth-Talking Ancestor

Levi Starks said...

Ghengas Kahn would be proud

n.n said...

Progress is an unqualified experiment in moral and biological change.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I looked into being a sperm donor when I was in school. The pay is pretty good!
I had the medical history and background part down, but they were only accepting people 6' and taller, with a preference for 6'2" and up. They said if you had green or blue eyes and were 5'11" or better you might get in. This was a college town, so I'm sure they made their quotas, but no cash for me.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Well he gets some $ so he ain't no stooge....

This fact from the article seems important:
Those children will have no legal or financial claim against the donor parent

But then later there's this:
But with an unlicensed donor a woman can ask for child support at any time - and the man could claim paternity.

I laughed at this:
"But if you can't afford £1,500 to secure safety for yourself and your child, you should wonder if you're fit for parenthood. It's an expensive job.
"What I find surprising is women investigate holiday destinations more than this."


Both because it's funny/true and because I'm not sure a US paper would allow an opinion like that, questioning as it does the judgement and decision-making ability of a woman, specifically her reproductive choices. After all, the heart of liberty is to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life, so if a few gals don't feel like putting much thought into knockin' themselves up with some unlicensed donor sperm, how dare anyone question that in any way!

Sal said...

7 Million People Direct Descendants Of Single Smooth-Talking Ancestor

He lived roughly 1200 years ago. Estimate 4 generations per century times 12 centuries equals 48 generations ago. That's 281 trillion grandparents for us in his generation alone, on a continent with a few million people. Odds are that not only are all whites descended from him, but we're all descended from everyone alive at that time who have living descendants today.

Skeptical Voter said...

With many women waiting a long time to start families, there are a lot of low fertility women trying to get pregnant. It's easier now with advances in technique than it was in the late 70's. My wife and I married just out of college, and in our mid 20s we simply had to be in the same city, and she was pregnant.

But as we and our friends got a bit older, it was hard for our friends to start families. One marriage was almost destroyed when the couple spent $15,000 they didn't have (it was the late 70's, he was in his first year of medical residency) to buy some sort of hormone treatment made from the urine of virgin nuns in an Italian nunnery. (I kid you not--that was what it was.) Whenever the woman's temperature spiked, she rushed to the hospital and they had sex wherever--an empty patient bed, a linen closet etc. The "treatment" finally worked and they had a child--but the effort almost ruined their marriage.

My younger daughter married in her mid 30's and needed help from fertility clinics. I'm now a happy grandfather with two sweet grandkids under the age of three. But it was expensive--and there were medical risks for my daughter.

If a woman believes that the fertility problem is her husband--not her---and she thinks she can only afford a private sperm donor---well then many of them will be tempted to do just that.

madAsHell said...

unlicensed sperm donor

I guess my license came with my marriage certificate.

David said...

He's got a long way to go to catch Wilt Chamberlin. Just because you give the woman the sperm doesn't mean she has to use it.

(The notion of 1000 Wilt Chamberlins running around doesn't seem so bad. Talk about improving the gene pool.)

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Renee in 5,4,3...

Fun fact: my mother told me at age 35 years, nine months and twenty days that I am the product of sperm donation because my dad is sterile.

Supposedly my donor was 6'1, blond hair, blue eyes, and a bachelor doctor in the Army. I give that zero credibility, since there was no possibility of independent verification. I'm 5'3", and my mom is 5'1" so he probably wasn't that tall, but he was fair because I'm fairer than my mom who has red hair, green eyes and olive skin (half Portuguese).

It does bother me that I'll never know a damn thing about half my heritage, but on balance I prefer being alive and not knowing to the alternative.

buwaya said...

"With many women waiting a long time to start families, there are a lot of low fertility women trying to get pregnant."

This is at the root of so, so much.

Quaestor said...

This brings to mind the career of William Shockley, physicist, inventor of the transistor, and eugenicist. He advocated persons with sub-normal IQs be voluntarily sterilized. He also offered his own sperm to any interested female whose IQ and general health met his expectations, and with no 50 quid fee, either.

Allowing for the fact that I'm not in the jizz market, I think the women who have paid Simon Watson are a bunch of rubes who just fell off the turnip wagon. Just look at him... He's no prize winner. He's got just an average brain with no particular talent or accomplishments. Physically he's an embarrassment to manhood -- weedy, unmuscled -- his hips are broader than his shoulders. Shockley splooge, in contrast, was a bargain at any price. Sire your kids by a tall, handsome, Nobel laureate or by a spotty Lancashire yob you meet in a service station -- and who do the girls go for? Freud was right. After all is said and done women are nuts.

madAsHell said...

It does bother me that I'll never know a damn thing about half my heritage

Don't let it bother you. The alternative is facing those holy-shit-I've-turned-into-my-father moments, and realizing some behavior is hard wired.

Freeman Hunt said...

"I'm 5'3", and my mom is 5'1" so he probably wasn't that tall"

Who knows. My mother is 5'2"; my father was 6'3"; and I am only 5'4".

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Quaestor said...
"Simon Watson... he's no prize winner. He's got just an average brain with no particular talent or accomplishments. Physically he's an embarrassment to manhood -- weedy, unmuscled..."

How do you know he doesn't have a high IQ? Anyway, Watson has blue eyes, is probably tall, I'm guessing, and although not handsome, he's not particularly ugly. I think that's enough for most women.

Meade said...

Call me old fashioned but I rather prefer the traditional method.

traditionalguy said...

Calling Genghis Khan. Your record is in jeopardy.

mccullough said...

His teeth aren't too bad, for a Brit.



mccullough said...

The UK government limits licensed sperm donors to 10 kids. I want to know how they came up with that number.

In the US, that would either violate the constitutional rights but to procreate or the common law right to earn a living in your chosen field.

Gahrie said...

OK...I'll give you this one.

This guy is a splooge stooge.

jaydub said...

"Usually one a week pops out."

Jimbino affected most.

Laura said...

How to remove the social stigma from inbreeding.

MPH said...

Misplaced pants -- buy yourself a kit from 23andme. You might discover living dna relatives from your biological father's side of the family.

SeanF said...

Freeman Hunt: Who knows. My mother is 5'2"; my father was 6'3"; and I am only 5'4".

How tall was the mailman? :)

mikee said...

What? No Laslo? I guess he avoids the obvious low hanging fruit as not worth the effort.