Open AccessMaintaining an adequate sperm donor pool: modifying the medical criteria for sperm donor selection
Author(s) -
Guido Pennings
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of assisted reproduction and genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1573-7330
pISSN - 1058-0468
DOI - 10.1007/s10815-021-02289-9
Subject(s) - sperm donation , sperm , donation , economic shortage , sperm bank , ethical issues , scarcity , sperm quality , gynecology , medicine , fertility , andrology , law , political science , engineering , environmental health , economics , population , engineering ethics , linguistics , philosophy , government (linguistics) , microeconomics
The shortage of donor sperm will increase due to greater access by lesbian couples and single women and due to extra rules imposed on sperm donation. Two steps should be distinguished in donor recruitment: an ethical phase where candidates are self-selecting on the basis of ethical rules, and a medical phase where criteria related to quality and safety of the sperm are imposed. The first phase functions as a bottle neck. Candidate donors who reject the ethical rules will not present themselves for donation in clinics and sperm banks. If the ethical rules remain unchanged, the medical rules that apply after the bottle neck should become less stringent if a sufficient number of donors are to be maintained. Lowering the sperm quality standards will lead to more IVF. Although this is regrettable, it will become unavoidable if the scarcity of donors increases.