Monday, June 20, 2011

It’s Father’s Day, Truck out the Sperm Stories

Last week I received an e-mail from a NY Post reporter looking to see if I could direct her to a local NYC area sperm donor that had a number of offspring resulting from their donations. My first reaction was that she really came to the wrong guy as I am the infertile guy who helped start a Yahoo group where other men like me gather to discuss our not being able to biologically create children. I pointed her to Wendy Kramer of the DSR who pointed the reporter to Todd Whitehurst. The resulting article was titled “Pro Creators” subtitled “Sperm donors dads to dozens”

On the same day the NY Times ran a from page story on their Metro Section titled “Baby Makes Four, and Complications” about a woman, her known sperm donor, his lover and the resulting baby. The Op-Ed page ran an essay titled “A Father’s Day Plea to Sperm Donors” written by an 18 year old man, who was conceived via donor insemination, raised by his single mom, who has never known a father and wonders about the man and where he could be.

Today the NY Times blog Motherlode reacted to both earlier NYT pieces and posted a piece titled “Explaining Sperm Donation to a Preschooler” which elicited many comments, including my own.

It appears that anytime there is a holiday, parent related, we get these stories. I guess I should be happy as it elicits discussion. But part of me finds it disheartening that it takes a gimmick to start a discussion.

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