American children conceived with donor sperm are seeking their biological father through an internet website ? and finding half- siblings by the dozen. Using the Donor Siblings Registry, a web site founded by Wendy Kramer and her 15-year-old donor-conceived son, some teenagers and their mothers are holding family “reunions” — nearly always without Dad, who is just a number on a vial of sperm along with fragments of personal information. “They are building a new definition of family that both rests on biology and transcends it,” comments the New York Times.

Sperm bank officials estimate that 30,000 children are born each year from donor sperm, but no one knows how many there really are because the industry is unregulated. “As half-siblings find one another, it is becoming clear that the banks do not know how many children are born to each donor, and where they are. Popular donors may have several dozen children and critics say there is a risk of unwitting incest between half-siblings,” says the Times.

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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