Southampton needs sperm :: Wessex Scene Online

Southampton needs sperm

2nd November 2006

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Southampton NHS Trust is urging students to donate sperm as the region finds itself in the midst of a "dire" shortage. Universities and colleges are being targeted as the need for young, fit donors escalates due to recent laws scrapping donors’ right to anonymity.

Donor numbers have been falling for several years, and the new laws have exacerbated the problem. There has been a 38% drop in the last five years, and the speed of the decline has increased since the new laws were introduced in April 2005.

The BBC claims 70% of fertility clinics have little to no access to donor sperm; there are very few active donor programmes in the South, and Southampton’s has to serve all of Hampshire plus parts of Dorset, Sussex and Wiltshire.

There are fears that people could be driven to unlicensed ‘backstreet clinics’ due to the shortage.

Donors can earn up to Ł250 for a maximum of ten donations. But anyone born as a result of sperm donation has the right, once they turn 18, to identify their genetic parent, although they can make no financial or legal claim regarding that person.

Nick Brook, a fertility expert at Southampton’s Princess Anne Hospital, said: "The donation of sperm to help a couple have a child is one of the most generous gifts anyone can give," but warned: "Obviously the decision to donate is one which should not be taken lightly and men need to think carefully about the possible impact it could have on their own family in future."

However, nine in ten Southampton University students surveyed for the Wessex Scene would not even consider donating sperm. One of the responders, Daniel Preston, explained: "No amount of money could persuade me to possibly have ten kids coming to my house in 20 years’ time."

Recent statistics from the British Fertility Society suggest that up to one in seven couples will have problems conceiving a child.