Posted on 11/13/2001 8:31:32 AM PST by Atlas Sneezed
Published Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News
STANFORD
Talk about pay equity: For years, women have been offered thousands of dollars for their ova, while men got $50 for their sperm. Now, a Burlingame woman is offering $15,000 for what she sees as premium specimens: sperm from a Stanford University student.
A tall, handsome, intelligent Stanford student, of course.
The woman, who wants to remain anonymous, says she has received about 30 inquiries since her ad ran in a Peninsula newspaper. Sperm bank workers are agog at the fee.
``That seems really excessive,'' said Eleanor Nicoll, public relations manager for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, a professional organization. Sperm banks usually pay $50 to $200 for each deposit.
The deal seems pretty sweet to some Stanford men.
Ben Martinez, a 20-year-old art major at Stanford, saw the classified ad Friday and planned to call -- until he saw the requirement that the potential donor be over 6 feet tall. Martinez is 5 feet 7 1/2.
``I'd use that money to buy a car,'' he said, figuring he'd have enough left for a guitar, too.
Nathan Hines, an aerospace engineer, wondered why the woman would go through all the fuss. Donations needn't be hard to obtain. ``Why not take the guy on a date or something?'' he suggested.
An impressed Zach Myers, 19, cursed over the fee, then joked, ``That's sexism. You know how much the chicks get paid for eggs?''
Indeed, ads encouraging women to ``be an angel'' and donate eggs routinely run in the Stanford Daily. Last year, an anonymous couple offered $100,000 for the eggs of an athletically gifted, young white woman.
Of course, donating eggs is a much more invasive procedure than donating sperm. Women must take fertility pills and then have the eggs surgically removed. For guys, Myers delicately says, it's not painful.
Health professionals worry that a woman independently screening candidates can't test them for infectious diseases. At the California Cryobank, which has clinics near University of California-Los Angeles, Stanford and Harvard, the donors must complete a 28-page genetic history, have a physical exam and be interviewed by the staff, said Marla Eby, vice president of marketing. Men are paid $50 for each time and can donate three times a week for a maximum payout of $600 per month. Most donors remain anonymous.
BioGenetics in New Jersey will pay donors $500 if they're willing to have their identity revealed to women who select their sperm, said Albert Anouna, who directs BioGenetics and the Sperm Bank of New York. Men are limited to a maximum of 10 donations, or two pregnancies.
But the woman who placed the ad doesn't want to go that clinical route. She wants to talk with the potential father of her child -- Hannah if it's a girl, Niles if it's a boy -- and decide if she likes his character, as well as his face. She said admittance into Stanford already suggests his intelligence.
As for the money, she said: ``Given that I have money to burn, $15,000 doesn't seem like a lot.''
Since her divorce more than a year ago, the woman said she's been distressed by the dating scene, especially by one gentleman, who claimed to have a connection with outer space. (``He was from L.A. Enough said.'') Adoption is not an option because she wants to experience childbirth as well as parenthood. And because she is 33 years old and has endometriosis -- a gynecological disorder that can cause fertility problems -- she feels a sense of urgency.
But even as she says that, she adds that she might put off finding a sperm donor and try the dating scene for another year. She's convinced that the sperm pool will be as good next year. ``I got so much response,'' she said, ``I'm not worried.''
Huh. Guess I'll need a consultation regarding technique.
Sperm banks are just a form of male prostitution and a means of medically assisted adultery. A married woman receives her husbands sperm in her womb, where it fertilizes her egg, and their child is conceived. ANY introduction of other's eggs or sperm is simply adultery, like it or not.Immorality runs rampant and institutionalized in our "enlightened" society.
If she wants a child, then back to dating, or arranged marriage . Her wealth is no excuse for her actions.
Seems to me we could do with a little more sin-hating.A lot of evil is so banal that many don't even notice.
Getting paid for participation in sexual intercourse is defined as prostitution, is it not ? Is not the natural object of sexual intercourse the producing of children (and an emotional bonding between the parents)? Like to show us how increased support for illegimate births, abortions, and other wrongs have improved our lives ?
Since colleges and medical facilities get tax dollars , I think it terrible that they promote further breakdowns of the family on which society is based.
15 Thousand bucks? Will a short horny Italian do?
Yes, I am sure there would be a whole group of them willing to give her a sperm specimen, you know, the old fashioned way, and do it for free.
The guy, I didn’t say man, that would donate his sperm for a few thousand in compensation can’t have very good judgment no matter what his education level may be.
None of my sperm are "students". They're all post-grad.
You are attempting to seperate the parts of the act so that each appears innocent in itself, while ignoring the totality.
Hey Dude! This woman is wanting to have a family. She is wanting to create a Mother/child family. She clearly has no need or desire for a man to join in to dominate and weaken this planned relationship. Is that such a bad thing?
That depends on the definition of what "is" is!
<Ah, Brave new America -- where the "choice" of creating a new human being is devoid of love, family, commitment, responsibility but is reduced to a commercial product.
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