# Unauthorized use of sperm

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unauthorized-use-of-sperm/291748>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 24, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unauthorized-use-of-sperm/291748 "2005-02-24T19:24:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![sleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unauthorized-use-of-sperm/291748/41 "2005-02-27T06:12:33Z")

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> [@Tenar](#):
>
> I envision nervous guys having their sperm frozen for future use and held in high security facilities, then being sterilized. Highly unlikely, but not impossible if the Courts are going to hold guys responsible for children conceived by them while they’re unconscious.

[This 2003 blog entry](http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001435.html) describes new sperm preservation techniques:

> [@](#):
>
> This also opens up greater possibilities for sperm theft. If the sperm can more easily be stored then there will be greater incentive for a woman to get sperm from someone they have a brief affair with and arrange to have the sperm air dryed and then kept for later fertilization. A woman could easily build up a large collection from all the men she ever slept with and then go thru and, once DNA sequencing is cheap, sequence a part of each sample and then choose which man’s sperm she wants to use for making a baby on her own.

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**Author:** ![MaceMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@MaceMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaceMan)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unauthorized-use-of-sperm/291748/42 "2005-03-01T04:09:31Z")

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Any woman who steals sperm should automatically lose custody of the child (and possibly visitation rights as well) if the biological father sues for it, because she is clearly an unfit parent. What if someone did this to her son? At least the possibility of losing custody rights would bring some justice to the situation. The legal system must establish consequences to deter women from doing this.

It certainly seems like simple theft to me. I cannot believe the courts could see it any other way. In the future, someone might take a single cell from your body, and use it to clone you or to combine it with their own DNA to make a baby. People should own the rights to their own DNA, and must be given the choice whether they want to reproduce. Unless intercourse also occurred, why should the father be held responsible?

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