The NHS is paying women who are childless to have kids using sperm donors. They look for high IQ men with no disease. The future is here and this is how women will get round not committing when younger- the government will bail them out for their chitty decisions.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/1110928...s-are.html
hanks to advances in medical science, more and more professional women are using sperm banks to fulfil their dreams of motherhood. Casilda Grigg reveals the human stories behind a reproductive revolution
Boy-girl twins are racing up and down a sunlit garden in Buckinghamshire. Church bells are pealing, lawnmowers are rumbling, birds are trilling in the trees. “Look at me!” says Ned, the quieter twin, jumping on the toddler trampoline, as his mother looks on protectively. “I’m bouncing!”
Lucy Workman’s twins, Ned and Nancy, were born in July 2012. At first glance they could be any two year-olds – happy, self-confident, deeply loved – but their background is not a conventional one. These longed for children are the product of Lucy’s eggs and donor sperm from the United States. At 18 the twins will be able to contact their biological father, should they wish to do so, but in the meantime they will be raised by a solo professional mother who jumped through hoops to have them. “People say 'I’d never do what you’ve done’ ,” says Lucy, who paid £8,000 for private fertility treatment. “But unless you’ve been 40 years old without a child you can’t know how it feels.”
Lucy’s story is part of a wider debate over sperm banks and “designer babies”. It’s selfish and unnatural, say the critics. It’s treating babies like puppies and handbags. It’s playing God. It’s devastating for the child. News that the NHS is opening a sperm bank next month (UK donors are in short supply) has only inflamed things further, with lesbian couples taking most of the rap. “NHS to fund sperm bank for lesbians … paid for by YOU,” said one tabloid headline, even though the NHS sperm bank is equally directed at single women and heterosexual couples.
To anyone exploring this world for the first time it can seem alarming. Sperm, like books or DVDs, can be bought online at the click of a mouse. And if you trawl through the donor profiles on the world’s top sperm banks – Xytex in the US, say, or Cryos in Denmark – it’s not so very different to browsing a dating website looking for a boyfriend. But, says Dr Marie Wren at the Lister Hospital, the similarities end there. “People can lie on internet dating sites,” she says. “They can say they’re single when they’re married, or that they’re younger than they really are. But with a reputable sperm bank you can be certain the donor has been vetted. It’s highly regulated because the repercussions are so serious.”
Are careers to blame? Most of the professional women I interviewed described themselves as “very romantic”. They never for a second imagined they’d be starting families this way – they just didn’t meet anyone. Those who’ve succeeded, like Lucy, have the resources to give their children a good life. Should such women be condemned to childlessness when science may be able to help?
Many embarking on the journey towards solo motherhood feel they don’t have a choice. “It’s a biological thing,” said one aspiring mother, who has endured several (failed) rounds of IVF. “I can’t help how I feel.” All spoke of their mental anguish. Is it morally wrong to bring a child into the world without a father? Is a mother’s love ever enough?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/1110928...s-are.html
hanks to advances in medical science, more and more professional women are using sperm banks to fulfil their dreams of motherhood. Casilda Grigg reveals the human stories behind a reproductive revolution
Boy-girl twins are racing up and down a sunlit garden in Buckinghamshire. Church bells are pealing, lawnmowers are rumbling, birds are trilling in the trees. “Look at me!” says Ned, the quieter twin, jumping on the toddler trampoline, as his mother looks on protectively. “I’m bouncing!”
Lucy Workman’s twins, Ned and Nancy, were born in July 2012. At first glance they could be any two year-olds – happy, self-confident, deeply loved – but their background is not a conventional one. These longed for children are the product of Lucy’s eggs and donor sperm from the United States. At 18 the twins will be able to contact their biological father, should they wish to do so, but in the meantime they will be raised by a solo professional mother who jumped through hoops to have them. “People say 'I’d never do what you’ve done’ ,” says Lucy, who paid £8,000 for private fertility treatment. “But unless you’ve been 40 years old without a child you can’t know how it feels.”
Lucy’s story is part of a wider debate over sperm banks and “designer babies”. It’s selfish and unnatural, say the critics. It’s treating babies like puppies and handbags. It’s playing God. It’s devastating for the child. News that the NHS is opening a sperm bank next month (UK donors are in short supply) has only inflamed things further, with lesbian couples taking most of the rap. “NHS to fund sperm bank for lesbians … paid for by YOU,” said one tabloid headline, even though the NHS sperm bank is equally directed at single women and heterosexual couples.
To anyone exploring this world for the first time it can seem alarming. Sperm, like books or DVDs, can be bought online at the click of a mouse. And if you trawl through the donor profiles on the world’s top sperm banks – Xytex in the US, say, or Cryos in Denmark – it’s not so very different to browsing a dating website looking for a boyfriend. But, says Dr Marie Wren at the Lister Hospital, the similarities end there. “People can lie on internet dating sites,” she says. “They can say they’re single when they’re married, or that they’re younger than they really are. But with a reputable sperm bank you can be certain the donor has been vetted. It’s highly regulated because the repercussions are so serious.”
Are careers to blame? Most of the professional women I interviewed described themselves as “very romantic”. They never for a second imagined they’d be starting families this way – they just didn’t meet anyone. Those who’ve succeeded, like Lucy, have the resources to give their children a good life. Should such women be condemned to childlessness when science may be able to help?
Many embarking on the journey towards solo motherhood feel they don’t have a choice. “It’s a biological thing,” said one aspiring mother, who has endured several (failed) rounds of IVF. “I can’t help how I feel.” All spoke of their mental anguish. Is it morally wrong to bring a child into the world without a father? Is a mother’s love ever enough?
