A seller's guide to the U.S. market for sperm

The NY Times has some advice for potential sellers...

10 Things to Know About Being a Sperm Donor

"Your odds of getting into Harvard or Stanford are higher than your chances of being accepted as a donor at the major sperm banks.

California Cryobank and Fairfax Cryobank, the nation’s two largest sperm banks, take only about one in 100 applicants. Some deal-breakers: a low sperm count, an iffy health history or sperm that don’t do well after freezing.

If you’re short, forget about it.

...

You’ll never know how many children you have fathered.

There’s no legal limit, but the biggest sperm banks have policies that one donor’s sperm will not be allowed to sire children for more than 25 to 30 different “family units.” But some families may have two or three children with the donor’s sperm, and others may not report a birth, so they would not be counted in that limit. Some men who have joined the Donor Sibling Registry, a site where donors and their children can connect, have been surprised and disturbed to discover that they have dozens of offspring.

You may or may not get to meet them.

Sperm donors usually have the option to remain anonymous, or to agree that the children can get in touch when they turn 18. There has been a growing recognition of children’s rights to know their genetic parents — and recently a trend toward donor willingness to be identified. Even anonymous donors are increasingly being identified by curious children as genetic testing becomes cheaper and more common."