Egg and sperm donors could get up to £800 in payments

Currently the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) imposes a £250 cap on payments so as to avoid commercialising the procedure.

But the low payment is thought to be behind a shortage in egg and sperm donation which is driving infertile women and men to overseas – often unregulated – clinics, according to research.

Now the HFEA is considering adopting the Spanish system which would see the payment cap lifted to £800.

"We want to review egg donation," Professor Lisa Jardine, the chair of the HFEA told the Sunday Times.

"We are suggesting moving closer to the Spanish system. But there is no suggestion of adopting the US model where a good-looking girl with a degree can get $30,000 (£19,000) for her eggs."

A report will go to the HFEA's executive next month, setting out the proposed higher payments.

It will then be put out to public consultation.

Fertility clinics are barred from offering straight payments for egg or sperm donation.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7958588/Egg-and-sperm-donors-could-get-up-to-800-in-payments.html

Early Down's syndrome screening not available in Wales

Pregnant women in Wales are still waiting for access to a screening test two years after it was recommended.

A health guidance body said in 2008 all pregnant women should be offered, on the NHS, a combined scan and blood tests for foetal chromosomal problems.

But currently, women are only offered a different blood test after 15 weeks.

The assembly government said implementing guidelines took time but it hoped to have screening in place by April next year, depending on funding.

The recommended test is a specialised ultrasound scan checking for raised levels of fluid at the back of the foetus' neck, which can indicate chromosomal abnormalities such as Down's or Edward's syndromes.

The screening includes a specialised ultrasound scan Pregnant women in Wales are still waiting for access to a screening test two years after it was recommended.

A health guidance body said in 2008 all pregnant women should be offered, on the NHS, a combined scan and blood tests for foetal chromosomal problems.

But currently, women are only offered a different blood test after 15 weeks.

The assembly government said implementing guidelines took time but it hoped to have screening in place by April next year, depending on funding.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-10868260

Do we really want to trade the gift of life like junk on ebay?

Many men and women who long for a baby - but are beset by fertility problems - will read with envy the news that Samantha Cameron has given birth to a baby girl and say a silent prayer that they too will be so blessed.

Yet the fact remains that, in many cases, their prayers will not be answered because of a chronic shortage in the number of people willing to donate eggs or sperm to help them conceive.

This week's announcement that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will review its policy on paying sperm and egg donors raises, yet again, the issue of how we reconcile questions of need, knowledge and ethics.

In my view, the review is no bad thing. Sometimes we have to go back to the drawing board, if only to decide the first design was the best one. I firmly believe we should not pay people to be donors.

Let's be clear what this is about. One in seven couples has fertility problems, causing untold heartache. They have planned the nursery in their dreams and watched their friends completing their lives with children, but have to face the news that it won't be so easy - if at all possible - for them.

After trying in vain, they seek advice, and all the time the clock is ticking, especially as women are leaving it later to start attempting to conceive. They may seek IVF, at which point they may discover that the problem is within one of them, in terms of producing eggs or sperm.
So they turn to the idea of donation. Yet some fertility clinics have waiting lists of up to two years, because of the shortage of donated eggs and sperm. That is why some couples go abroad as 'fertility tourists' to get what they need. Or even buy sperm over the internet.


For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1306232/BEL-MOONEY-Do-really-want-trade-gift-life-ebay.html#ixzz0y1DJAR1A

Mummy tummies the shape of things to come

BRONZED and beautiful, mums-to-be are throwing off the maternity garb and celebrating their baby bumps.

And women who have gone through an arduous journey with IVF are the latest fans of belly casting.

Nicole Shulman, co-owner of Melbourne business Belly Art, said these women in particular were keen to document every moment of their pregnancies.

"In the past two years we have been getting a lot of people who have gone through a long journey with IVF," Ms Shulman said.

"They have tried so hard for so long to get pregnant that they want to immortalise every step.

"For other people, they might have had three children and realise this is their last time being pregnant."

The business, which has been casting pregnant bellies for eight years, says the latest trend is a bronze finish plaster cast. And the bigger the bump, the better.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/mummy-tummies-the-shape-of-things-to-come/story-e6frf7kx-1225910129182

Contacting My Sperm Donor – I Am A Kid who is All Right!

In response to recently released movie "The Kids Are All Right" one girl whose life followed a similar pattern has spoken out about the reality of life with two moms who turned to sperm donation to start a family:



The media is buzzing about the new film “The Kids Are All Right”, which premiered earlier this month. Its release was exciting for me because for the first time I saw characters who closely reflected my family’s makeup, though the rest of the story, not really. I too have two mothers and a sperm donor who I contacted when I turned eighteen. The outcome was different and far less drama surrounded my family when I was finally able to contact and meet my donor, though there were still plenty of surreal moments. The reaction to the film has been extremely varied, from people thrilled to see representation of a lesbian-headed household, to those who see the events depicted in the film as reinforcement of the notion that children need to know and live with their biological mother and father.

Growing up in Massachusetts through the marriage equality debate in 2004 and all subsequent movements, I have long been combating false beliefs that LGBTQ people should not get married or raise children. I have lesbian mothers and I have a sperm donor. This in no way has made me less of a person, daughter, woman, or friend. To me, what makes a good parent is dedication to raising and loving a child. The number, gender, or sexuality of the parents does not determine the ability to help a child grow into a compassionate and kind person. To tell the truth, I feel lucky to have grown up with the knowledge that my mother put a great deal of time, money, and thought into having me. I have never doubted that I am loved because I know how much my mother wanted to have a child and did everything she could to have me.

While I understand that some people believe that the married, heterosexual, biological family is the only valid familial model, I refuse to let this stereotype go unchallenged. I have two mothers, only one of whom is biological, and no father. Rather than somehow leaving a negative affect, my family has helped me become a more open, loving, passionate, and socially aware individual. Growing up I was surrounded by many wonderful adult role models, some of whom were male. Of course I thought about my sperm donor, who he was, why he donated, what it would be like to meet him. The reason for me was never about searching for a parent I had lost or a piece of me that was missing, it was about meeting and thanking the person who enabled Cathy and Nancy, my mothers, to become parents.

While I understand that some people believe that the married, heterosexual, biological family is the only valid familial model, I refuse to let this stereotype go unchallenged. I have two mothers, only one of whom is biological, and no father. Rather than somehow leaving a negative affect, my family has helped me become a more open, loving, passionate, and socially aware individual. Growing up I was surrounded by many wonderful adult role models, some of whom were male. Of course I thought about my sperm donor, who he was, why he donated, what it would be like to meet him. The reason for me was never about searching for a parent I had lost or a piece of me that was missing, it was about meeting and thanking the person who enabled Cathy and Nancy, my mothers, to become parents.

I had never met another person with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or even queer parent until I was thirteen. That summer my family went to Provincetown, Massachusetts for Family Week where I participated in workshops provided by COLAGE. COLAGE is the only national youth-driven network of children, youth, and adults with LGBTQ parents. I would not be writing this if I had never come to know COLAGE and the others with LGBTQ parents I met through COLAGE. That summer I found my center and my political voice. Through the years COLAGE has helped me become a better advocate for myself and my family. This summer I am an intern at COLAGE and I am assisting in the distribution of the Donor Insemination (DI) Guide. The DI Guide is part testimonials and part advice focusing on the questions and concerns of donor-conceived children and their families. I have been able to watch the DI Guide go from an idea to a tool for families.

It has been almost three years since I began the process of contacting my sperm donor. Four months after I turned eighteen I had the name and address of my donor and within the year I learned I had two half-sisters who shared the same donor. I think the most incredible part of meeting my donor and half-siblings was putting an end to the mystery. After years of playing around with different scenarios in my head, or coming up with the reasons that Harvey Fierstein was my donor, I lost mystique but gained very real new friends and family. Now family gatherings include my two sisters, two of their siblings, our collective six lesbian mothers, and our donor and his wife. Certainly we are still getting to know each other, but there is an undeniably authentic connection between all of us.

Along with identical chins, my half-sisters and I have followed very similar paths. One sister, who is four months older than me, was a sophomore at Smith College as I began my first year at Mount Holyoke College. The schools are both women’s liberal arts colleges and twenty minutes apart. Together we met our other donor sister in March 2009. It turned out that this new sister is from a town ten minutes from my own, that we have mutual acquaintances, and I had heard about her a year before I met her. At a drama festival at her high school I met a guy who had taken the girl in town with lesbian mothers to her senior prom the previous year. In my favorite “small world” story, my sister and I took the same guy to our senior proms. I do not look like anyone in my family, but I do look a lot like her. The photos, both of us wearing blue dresses, are just incredible. Thankfully, we did not both date “our” prom date.

Meeting my donor and my new extended family did not alter my relationship with my parents. They were completely supportive of my desire to contact my donor and they were with me when I met him. I did not begin this adventure to seek a father and, though my donor is a wonderful person and a part of my life now, he is not my father. I have two parents and that is enough for me, but I am thrilled to have him as part of my growing family. For some people, family is a rigid concept. For me, family is not limited by genetics or living in the same home. My family is filled with moms, grandparents, half-siblings, friends, cousins, and a sperm donor. It may seem unfamiliar to some, but this is my family and together we are more than all right.

His Sperm, My Choice

Amidst the controversy over donor conceived conception a woman who was conceived via this method has spoken up supporting the process and the choices her mother made:

"Our conversation this week about children born through artificial insemination was very close to home for me.

I’m one of the tens of thousands of women who became a mother using a sperm donor.

With the high range of estimates finding that 60,000 American kids are born through donor conception each year – representing less than 2 percent of all births - I had hoped it was still too rare to draw the kind of Fox News debate that rages around issues like gay marriage. And so I’ve watched this issue become a hot topic in the culture wars with dread.

But that didn’t stop me from reading “My Daddy’s Name is Donor,” the report compiled by our guest Elizabeth Marquardt and her organization. It’s crucial for me to have the best possible understanding of the situation I’ve brought my innocent child into, so when it was first released, I spent hours reading every word, checking every number, studying every comment. And it confirmed that bearing and raising kids this way would be tough. But it also confirmed on every measure of dysfunction, a majority of these children turned out just fine.

As a consequence, I’m not sure why there are so many grave predictions for families like mine. And I reject the idea that most mothers conceive this way because they’re ignoring the difficulties. When I decided to have a child using artificial insemination, I knew I would have to find a way to deal with all those old fashioned folks who believe that a happy marriage provides the best home for raising children. That was especially tricky, because I was - and am - one of those people. I know what kind of challenges children face in single-parent homes. I was raised in one.

But I also know that being married when your child is born is no guarantee of a stable, two-parent home forever. Before I decided on artificial insemination, I pictured my alternatives: going on a mad hunt for husband with a one-item agenda and a stop-watch; or trying to convert a friend into a baby-daddy, a life-time partnership with no rules, blueprints or history of success. And even if that search panned out, I saw a 50/50 chance of ending up in the exact circumstances that faced my mother and so many other single and divorced moms: raising a child with a ghost dad.

For me – and for so many other kids I knew whose fathers weren’t around - what did the most damage was the emotional whiplash of having your dad there one day, and gone the next. On your 5th birthday, he’d swoop in for a weekend of ballgames, movies, gifts and pizza, and then do nothing for your 6th, a card for your 7th, a gift for the 8th, and back to nothing for the 9th. The suspense injects a little bit of poison into every celebration, every milestone, and every holiday.

If on one of those occasions, my mother had handed me a folder and said, “Listen, the reason your father didn’t show up is that - before you were born or even conceived - he signed this piece of paper agreeing to have no contact with me or with you until you turned eighteen,” that would’ve been better than what I had. And even with those issues, my mother provided a good home and raised my brother and me to be good and decent people.

I have faith I can do the same.

As an African-American child of a single mother, I’ve been hearing about the inevitable failure of my family and everyone in it for years. And thanks to endless web of relationships, I’ve gotten a front row seat to dysfunction that can develop despite the best of circumstances, and success that can grow, even under the worst.

Given what I know, I believe I can give my child a life worth living. And if I can do that, I don’t think it’s the government’s – or the culture warrior’s - business to tell me I can’t.

For the original source follow this link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/tellmemore/2010/08/16/129235764/his-sperm-my-choice

'Cryo kids' : sperm donor children lobby to end anonymous donors

They often can’t find their dad and if they do, chances are he’s moved on.

Now, though, sperm-donors’ children are banding together to try to ban anonymous sperm donation in hopes of saving future generations from the frustrating search that all too often ends in heartbreak, according to the Associated Press.

Using Internet-based social networking sites and other timely events, they’re banding together to reach their goal.

Earlier this summer, the film, "The Kids Are All Right," hit movie screens, telling the story of two siblings who track down their sperm-donor dad. And weeks earlier, a study from the Commission on Parenthood���s Future entitled, "My Daddy’s Name is Donor," looked at nearly 500 donor offspring and found that they were more prone to depression than other young people.

The commission called for an end to anonymous sperm donation. Meanwhile, newspaper op-ed articles and blogs have been both pro and con on the anonymity issue.


For more on this story follow the link: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2010/08/17/2010-08-17_family_matter_sperm_donor_children_lobby_to_end_anonymous_donations.html#ixzz0wz1jmMqp

Meet The 25-Year-Old Sperm Hunter

Lara Carter has slept with 20 strangers in the past year - in a desperate and reckless bid to get pregnant.

The self-confessed "sperm hunter" uses ovulation kits to tell her when she is most fertile then pretends to be drunk, throwing herself at unsuspecting fellas and making it obvious she wants sex.

If Lara, 25, meets a man who wants to use a condom, she will offer one from her purse - which she has already pierced a hole in.

Lara, an assistant office manager, says: "This is absolutely the right time for me to have a baby and nothing is going to stand in my way. "All my friends have babies and I desperately want to be a mum. "I don't have a steady boyfriend and feel my time to have a baby is running out. I only need a man to provide his sperm - I would have no interest in seeing him again. That is why I'm a sperm hunter."

Her obsession with getting pregnant started a year ago, when she attended the birth of a friend's baby. She says: "The moment I saw my friend hold her newborn child, I had a huge desire to feel that love too. "I've always loved babies and wanted to be a mother from a very young age but from that moment it become an obsession. I have made it my mission in life to get pregnant."

For more on this story follow the link: http://foreign.peacefmonline.com/entertainment/201008/71834.php

Offspring of sperm donors seek changes so they can find their fathers more easily

Katrina Clark and Lindsay Greenawalt have much in common. Bright women in their 20s, raised by single mothers, keenly curious about the men whose donated sperm helped give them life.

Clark's search for her father succeeded after only a month, though with a bittersweet aftermath. Greenawalt is still searching, seven years after she started — persisting despite doubts and frustrations.

"I've dreamt of you since I was a little girl," Greenawalt wrote to her unknown dad in a Father's Day blog posting in June. "There are so many things I want to know about you."

Greenawalt, who lives near Cleveland, and Clark, a college student in Washington, D.C., are part of an increasingly outspoken generation of donor offspring. They want to transform the dynamics of sperm donation so the children's interests are given more weight and it becomes easier to learn about their biological fathers.

One specific goal — a ban on anonymous sperm donations — seems far-off in the United States, although Britain and several other European countries have taken that step.

But the voices of donor offspring are being heard more widely and clearly than ever, thanks to Internet-based social networking and other recent developments.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.wtvr.com/sns-ap-us-sperm-donor-dads,0,321887.story

Jennifer Aniston branded 'destructive to society' after saying women don't need a man to have a child

Jennifer Aniston has lost a friend in right-wing news pundit Bill O'Reilly.
He's said she was being 'destructive to our society' for saying that women don't need to wait for a man to have a child.
The 60-year-old Fox News TV rottweiler lashed out on his show at the remark by the 41-year-old actress.

'Aniston can hire a battery of people to help her, but she cannot hire a dad, OK? And Dads bring a psychology to children that is, in this society, I believe, under-emphasized. I think men get hosed all day long in the parental arena.'

In The Switch, Aniston plays Kassie, a single woman who is desperate for a baby and decides to have artificial insemination to fall pregnant.
Her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman), who is in love with her, drunkenly switches the donor sperm with his own, and doesn't tell her.
Speaking at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, Aniston said she still wishes for a family of her own.
'Yeah, I have said it years before and I still say it today,' she said. But will she turn to the 'turkey baster' method, like Kassie?
'I don't have plans on that, no,' says Aniston. But speaking to Entertainment Weekly recently, she hinted 'I'm on the verge of it in some way... it's something I long for.'

People magazine quotes Jennifer saying, 'the point of the movie is what is it that defines family? It isn't necessarily the traditional mother, father, two children and a dog named Spot.

'Love is love and family is what is around you and who is in your immediate sphere.
'That is what I love about this movie. It is saying it is not the traditional sort of stereotype of what we have been taught as a society of what family is.'

For more on this story follow the link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1302526/Jennifer-Aniston-destructive-saying-women-dont-need-man-child.html

Complaints against Marie Stopes TV ad rejected

Despite 1,054 complaints from the public, GPs and MPs, the advisory watchdog has quashed criticisms against the first televised abortion advertisement in the UK.

The campaign, which was broadcast throughout May and June of this year, was condemned by some as misleading, offensive and harmful for its advice surrounding unplanned pregnancy.

A spokeswoman from the ProLife Alliance said, ‘It is preposterous to assert that the ad was not misleading.’

The television commercial was criticised for promoting abortion, for failing to take in to account the views of fathers and for offending religious beliefs.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/health/494386/complaints-against-marie-stopes-tv-ad-rejected.html

The old ones are the best - survey shows older generation have higher quality sperm

The results of a recent sperm investigation come as no surprise to many experts. They warn that older generations may actually be more fertile than younger guys.

Environmental influences and increasingly unhealthy lifestyles, they say, may be triggering these plummeting sperm counts.

We've recently seen this theory in action, with two men becoming fathers in their 70s. The Sun told last month how Raymond Calvert, 79, was overjoyed at having son Jamie Rai with partner Charlotte, 25.

Meanwhile, pensioner Richard Roden, 72, announced in June that his wife Lisa, 26 - with whom he has 18-month-old twins Emily and Ruby - is pregnant again.

But these super-fertile old chaps may be a dying breed, warns sperm expert Dr Allan Pacey from the University of Sheffield.

He says: "We think sperm counts have declined in recent years. For some reason, today's men are not as fertile as their fathers. The main theory is that something in the environment - we don't know what - is affecting the development of the testicles in the womb.

"When men reach adulthood, their testicles perform less well and produce fewer sperm."

Bulging waistlines and unhealthy diets may also be contributing to lower sperm counts.

But older sperm is more likely to have genetic defects, he cautions, with babies born to older dads more likely to have health problems.

For more on this story follow the link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/3082192/Older-generation-are-more-fertile.html#ixzz0vj77hkPc

Sperm donor inquiry to close

A Senate inquiry into rules governing sperm and egg donation in Australia will stop accepting submissions on Friday.

Issues up for discussion include payments for donors, the number of offspring born from each donor, and the rights of donor conceived persons.

A same-sex couple wrote to complain about time constraints placed on using sperm from the same donor, as well as the number of women that could use sperm from the same donor under NSW’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Act.

“As of January 1 2010 the definition of how many people were allowed to use the same donor in Australia [changed to] ‘how many women’ rather than … ‘how many families’,” the couple wrote.

“I cant see any reasonable reason for this change in legislation which would only affect lesbians. It seems very homophobic.”

Most submissions to the inquiry have been from donor-conceived children calling for the same rights to information about their donors as adopted persons have about biological parents.

For more on this case follow the link: http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2010/07/28/sperm-donor-inquiry-to-close/28603