Michael Freeman

Confessions of a sperm donor

I didn’t expect to feel the way I did

  • From Spectator Life

I first became aware of the London Sperm Bank after seeing an advert on Instagram. ‘Help someone achieve their dream of a family. Become a sper­m donor and get compensated up to £420 a month’. Why not get paid to do something that I was going to do anyway in my spare time? In the past, I’ve donated blood and have looked into giving bone marrow, so sperm donation just seemed like another form of biological socialism: from each according to his ability, to each according to her need. But I also felt I might be hedging an existential bet. If the name of the game is to multiply, then donating my DNA seemed like a rational genetic insurance policy.

The only thing we have in common is our knowledge of those little windowless cubicles with their sinks and wall-mounted TVs

The staff at the bank are all very professional and polite.

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