Let’s say you’re a virtual uber-man. Handsome, physically perfect, mentally gifted, snappy dresser etc. Women want you, men want to be you.
You are approached by an entrepreneur who has unique business proposition. For a reasonable commission he will broker your super sperm to interested women who want your genome. There will be no physical interaction, it will all be via artificial insemination. They recipients will sign legal waivers etc. agreeing not to sue you for paternity.
Are there any laws or practical obstacles standing in the way of this cunning plan?
Aren’t there, or didn’t there used to be, clinics which paid sperm donors? That’s pretty much what you are suggesting, isn’t it?
As for “agreeing not to sue you for paternity”, unless you live somewhere which has passed laws specifically allowing for this so as to encourage sperm donation, be careful. It all depends on local laws, but in many places this agreement is completely worthless.
You would also need to look into local law as to whether any child conceived in this arrangement might have a right to track you later and/or if they found you might have a right to have you registered as their father, with all that that entails. Prima facie, any agreement the mother might sign wouldn’t restrict the child’s rights (unless, again, there are special laws in your jurisdiction which allow for this).
The other risk you face, of course, is that if there are laws to protect you in this situation, they might change in the future (as adoption laws, for example, have changed in ways which affected adoptions which had already been made).
The child’s genetic connection to you is a concrete objective fact which will never change, and there really can be no absolute guarantee that this fact will never have any consequences for you.
Happens all the time in the US. There are sperm donation clinics, they send you into a little room with a little jar and even some pr0n to help get things going. I think the destination of the sperm is to women who want to have a child without a partner, or to couples where the male does not have viable sperm.
AFAIK men are only protected from paternity suits in the US if they donate through a licenced clinic. Private agreements not to sue for paternity aren’t enforceable in court. Of course there are other factors that might make preven a successful paternity suit. If the woman is married and her husband (or wife in some states) is listed on the birth certificate she can’t turned around a few years later and sue the sperm donor for child support. Same deal if she doesn’t name a father on the certificate, get’s married a few years later and her spouse uses step-parent adoption on the child.
Now, if the woman was single when she was impregnated and gave birth, didn’t try to establish any paternity when she registered the birth, would she still be able to sue for paternity say 5-10 years later, or is there a statue of limitations involved?
Uh, oh. Look, if you see any…I’m NOT saying “Make a special trip”, but if you’re in the deli section of your grocery, could you slyly grab all the “Unc Digger’s Cleveland Ranch Dressing”? And then drop it in a trash receptacle.
I sold my sperm back when I was living in Albuquerque. To a fertility clinic at the U of New Mexico. I had to sign a waiver that I’d never try to track down any potential offspring – not all of the sperm were guaranteed to be used. It was great. They even gave me some porn to go whack off to. Made maybe six or eight donations, can’t remember.
So if you see any little Siam Sams running around that area, tell them Daddy says hello.
I think I’d like to see a cite for that. I have a hard time to believe that is the biggest issue. Not that it doesn’t happen, but I have a difficult time believing it is all that common.
Egg donors, adoptions, etc, yes, but sperm donors? :dubious:
She didn’t say that this was common. She said that it’s difficult to prevent, which I think means that on the (perhaps very rare) occasions where a sperm donor does pursue this course of action, it is difficult to derail him.
Me, I had to form a legal waiver promising never to do that. I suppose if I ever got it into my head to pursue some sort of legal course to find my offspring – and they emphasized there was a chance my sperm would not even be used – the clinic would not have to show me any records because of that and privacy laws for the recipient, although I’m not a lawyer. Short of walking around and keeping an eye out for anyone resembling me, then grabbing them and demanding a DNA test, I’m not sure I could do anything even if I were so inclined.
If you asked, the clinic would certainly wave the form at you and offer it as a reason for not answering. If you pursued the matter, though, it’s not an absolute given that having signed the form would be a complete bar to you. The genetic relationship between you and your offspring is a concrete and objective fact which can have legal consequences that aren’t necessarily removed simply by agreement. Parent-child relationships in particular tend to have legal consequences that don’t disappear simply becasue of a unilateral decision by the parent.
There could well be legislation in whatever jurisdication the clinic was located which gives a clear answer to this. If there isn’t, I think the courts would probably approach this by asking what is in the best interests of the child. It’s not completely inconceivable that a judge might conclude that, if you did have a genetic child, it was in that child’s interests to know that it had a genetic father who was looking for it, and was willing to open some kind of relationship with it.
