My First Blog

Journalism 3420- News Writing and Reporting has motivated (and of course, made meJ) keep up with recent news and what is going on around the world. I found a very interesting article on The New York Times website that I want to discuss today. The article is titled 'One Sperm Donor, 150 Offspring' by Jacqueline Mroz. While browsing The New York Times site, I saw numerous interesting topics but this one in particular caught my eye right away.  Just by the title of the article I knew what I was about to read, and I instantly asked myself, ‘why would one person be allowed to donate his sperm that many times’?  The article begins by describing a woman and her partner who used a sperm donor to conceive seven years ago. They always had hopes of their son being able to meet his half siblings once he got older. They began searching web-based registry for other children fathered by the same donor and then they helped create an online group to track them (nytimes.com).  The years went by and they watched the number of kids grow and grow and grow. This group seems to be among the largest, with other groups of 50 and 30 following behind. With these huge groups of children fathered by the same donor, many medical and incest concerns have been brought to the table. If I were born through artificial insemination I would definitely want to know, so I think that it is great the parents are informing their children. With that being said, I also think it is absolutely crazy there are no limits to how many times one person can donate in the United States. I feel there needs to be new legislation on this matter before it gets way too out of hand.