This is how the dangerous “Amazon of fertility” works
Having a child is the dream of many people around the world, but finding a suitable father it can be a bit complicated. There are many couples or single mothers who decide to go to a fertility clinic or a hospital to find a sperm donor, but now This process has also passed to social networks such as TikTok or Facebook. The Internet has become a veritable ‘Amazon of fertilization’, with advertisements for men who highlight having “very strong sperm.” And it is not the letter of introduction that can be found on Tinder, but a phrase taken from a Facebook group where dozens of men advertise to offer their semen to women and couples who need a donor, although without following official channels. The problem. In the United Kingdom, the legal route to receive a donation from a donor is through the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates assisted reproduction. In this case is established that donors cannot receive any financial compensation, except for justified expenses. Why it triumphs. A treatment at a fertility clinic can cost 10,000 poundsbeing a figure that many couples or single women cannot assume. That is why they decide to turn to a more economical system, although without regulation, such as social network groups. There are groups on social networks like Sperm Donors UK, Start a Family Here either Get Your Babydust Herewhere thousands of users publish “natural” or “artificial” donation offers. According to The Guardiansome of these groups have reached 10,000 members in one year with different announcements. In the case of Spain, this problem also exists, since although public healthcare covers a number of specific assisted reproduction cycles, the fact of consuming them also forces one to opt for the private route, which has significant costs. The speed. Also involved in this case is the fact of not being able to choose exactly the sperm donor, having to stick to certain physical characteristics that are sometimes met or not. With these dissemination groups, you can get a real photograph of the sperm donors to see if it fits the taste of the mother or the couple. And we get rid of having to wait for a profile with this style to appear, since it has been seen how a notice has been published saying “I need a donation tonight, I am ovulating and my donor has failed me. I am looking for a donor for this weekend.” This urgency creates the perfect breeding ground for the exploitation of this phenomenon. Felicity, a member of these groups cited by The Guardian, points out that the demographics are dangerous: very young recipients between 18 and 25 years old, and considerably older donors between 35 and 50 years old. There are many risks. When adjusting to this insemination method without any type of health regulation, it must be remembered that the donors have not been tested for sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, nor have they undergone genetic analysis to rule out important diseases such as cystic fibrosis. The case of James MacDougall, an unregulated donor who I knew I was a carrier of fragile (which causes learning and cognitive disabilities) and still donated, is a clear example of the danger. A legal chaos. A priori it seems that it is very easy to have a child using this internet system, and the reality is that in the United Kingdom it is quite simple thanks to very lax legislation, where we already have the case of a man who claims to have 180 children and has begun to claim to have contact with them through the courts. This in Spain is about regulating, specifically thanks to the Law 14/2006 on assisted human reproduction techniques which indicates that the donation is anonymous, meaning that the recipient cannot know the donor, so they will not have responsibilities regarding paternity. But this outside of an authorized center ceases to have value. This means that if a woman uses a Facebook donor and he then claims paternity (proving it with a DNA test), a judge could give it to her, with all her obligations (maintenance) and rights (visitation). The anonymity that Spanish law protects disappears, creating a legal nightmare for the mother. How they spread. How is it possible for these groups to prosper? This is the question we can ask ourselves today, and to answer it we have to understand that technology plays an important role. Meta’s recommendation algorithm, designed to connect similar interests, actively promotes these communities. Although Meta’s policies prohibit the sale of bodily fluids, the reality is that the moderation of private groups is sometimes complex to understand. Although it has already gone from Facebook to influencers. There are men like the German Daniel Bayen They document their “giving tours” around the world on TikTok and Instagram. Bayen, who was also conceived by donation, promotes transparency and maintains contact with the families to whom he has donated his sperm. But if analyzed, this type of person is leaving a trail of dozens of biological half-siblings and the risk of consanguinity in the future may increase, especially if the recipient families live nearby. Images | Christian Velitchkov Thomas Breher In Xataka | We have visited the place where Spain’s demographic hopes are literally placed: the sperm bank of Granada