Order a daddy? App lets women pick sperm donor

Order a daddy? App lets women pick sperm donor

Delivers Sample To Fertility Clinic

A mobile app has been launched that allows women to select a sperm donor based on characteristics, including race, nationality and eye colour.

London Sperm Bank Donors, dubbed “order a daddy“ app, lets users narrow down their search by giving them the option to browse through potential fathers and create a “wish list“ that informs them when a donor with their desired characteristics becomes available.

The potential fathers are titled by numbers, such as “Donor 1000“ and “Donor 1004“, with physical characteristics listed below. The user can then choose to “find out more“, an option that gives information about the donor, including medical data and personality .

The description gives an insight into what the donor is like. One states: “Pleasant, charming and easy to get on with, this donor was a cheerful intellectual teeming with positivity,“ while another reads: “He is a well mannered, well spoken and very likeable individual“.

Applicants listed are from a wide range of professions, including law, medicine, finance, engineering, hospitality , the performing arts and creative work.

Users can buy a donor's sperm sample by paying £950 via the app, and the sample is then delivered to the fertility clinic where the woman is being treated. The app, which promotes itself as a way to “plan your family on the go“, is legal and meets requirements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the IVF regulator.About half of UK's IVF clinics have registered to use the service.

Critics have claimed the app trivialises parenthood. Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said, “This is reproduction via phone. This is the ultimate denigration of fatherhood.“

But Dr Kamal Ahuja, director of London Sperm Bank, said the app was in keeping with the rise in online transactions. “This allows a woman who wants to get a sperm donor to gain control in privacy of her own home and to choose and decide in her own time.“

(TOI)