Posted on 05/05/2005 2:56:21 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
To the dismay of gay-rights activists, the Food and Drug Administration (search) is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
However, there are IVF procedures which eliminate this risk, and are being offered specifically to couples where the man is HIV positive. I don't know all the technical details, but I believe in addition to some extra processing they use ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection).
I don't really see the point in the ban, as long as the sexual history is disclosed to the buyers of the sperm. As it stands now, I think the reputable sperm banks exclude gay men already, and also ask about number of female partners, and disclose the answer to that question to potential buyers. As long as disclosure is the rule, no ban is needed, since the banks only want the most saleable sperm.
I'm concerned about the FDA getting deeper into regulating things like this. It's just going to make things more difficult and expensive for everyone. Another part of the recent FDA proposals is to require much more extensive testing of embryo donors, incurring significant additional expense and inconvenience to couples who want to make any excess embryos they may create, available for adoption. Many couples, already faced with tremendous expense and stress dealing with their own infertility issues, will decide not to take the extra steps required to make their embryos legal to donate for adoption (i.e. they'll be forced by government regulation to have their embryos either discarded or donated for research, even it they would much prefer to donate them for adoption).
Dear Lord...
I'm not into girl ogling and don't have a real affinity for pretty girls. I'm mainly attracted to girls if I like them as a girlfriend. I think other people may be similar to me.
So to get a better reading, print a picture of two guys doing the nasty. Confronted with that picture, I, and any other red-blooded straight man, will have a visceral reaction that will leave me lying on the floor helpless and babling/droling like an idiot. Such would be the trauma.
Gays, otoh, will react positively to such a picture.
Which brings me to this question: Which is worse? Fag love or Helen "Buffalo" Thomas?
I've always wanted to sponsor a billboard in front of a sperm bank that says, "DO YOU REALLY WANT YOUR SONS TO BE RAISED BY LESBIANS?"
Those tests are already mandatory, and are quite sufficient IMO. In addition, the major sperm banks do extensive genetic testing, as well as taking the health history of the donor and his siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and have reputations to protect, as they are associated with fertility-related medical institutions. Also a lot of education and employment information is gathered. Sperm from donors who are physically or personally deficient doesn't sell well, and there's no shortage of sane, stable, healthy men willing to donate (actually sell, since they get paid for it).
Sure, there are some fly-by-night sperm banks that don't do much screening of their donors. But given the low cost of sperm from the most reputable banks (usually $200-300 per vial) the kind of people who would use the fly-by-night banks are probably sleeping around with lots of virtual strangers anyway, and catching something from donor sperm is the least of their risks.
This is one more thing the government should stay out of.
I ordinarily agree with your anti-regulatory sentiments. I can tell you from experience, however, that infertility is a huge emotional rollercoaster and that most couples going through it are not in a position to act like intelligent consumers.
LOL!
"MEGADETH"
So whats the going rate for a billboard and do you know of any in front of any banks ?
That sounds like fun. Maybe we should all take up a collection for it ;-)
EXCEPT, if you're an illegal criminal Mexican wetback who snuck across the border in the dark of the night. Then, be sure to buy the fairy matricula card at the Mexican consulate. It is red, white, green and pink. With such a card, if they turn you down, it is racial profiling!
It must be because it's been mixed with their saliva before they spit it into the test tube.
While you may have FR seniority, and your sentiments may well be common around here, I would gently like to remind you that this forum is read by conservatives of all ethnicities. I am not the thought police, and you are free to tell me to shut my mouth, but perhaps next time you might leave the "wetback" comment out, as that term has been used as a slur for law-abiding Hispanic citizens as well as illegals.
Illegal immigrants have no American rights, that's true, and I wholly support sealing our borders to them. But this thread applies to homosexual sperm donors. That's quite a leap you made there.
I dunno, maybe there are some Freepers in advertising that can help us out.
How a gay man can look at that and not turn straight I'll never understand.......
You are woefully misinformed! HIV can be present in any bodily fluid.
But they want gays in the military where they can give blood on the battlefield as part of the walking blood supply.
"You are woefully misinformed! HIV can be present in any bodily fluid."
Well somebody else pointed out that there have been cases of infection through Sperm. Are you sure about any bodily fluid? sweat, urine, salivia??? If that is true then there is a LOT of misinformation out there and I am not the only one misinformed (including my physician brother-in-law)
Hallelujah!
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