Indians are seeking sperm donors with film star looks and Einstein brains. Arun Ram reports from Chennai.
Indians are seeking sperm donors with film star looks and Einstein brains.
CHENNAI: Rakesh and Soumya walked into an infertility clinic-cum-sperm bank in Mumbai with a request — a baby who would grow up to look like Hrithik Roshan and have the brains of a doctor. “A few years ago, all they wanted was a healthy donor. Now, they want donors with film star looks and Einstein brains,” says Dr Anjali Malpani of Mumbai-based Malpani Infertility Clinic.
Sperm banks opened shop in India 15 years back to help infertile couples experience the joys of parenthood. Today couples want to control how their babies look like and what they will grow up to.
Experts like Nandita Palshetkar of Delhi’s Batra Hospital attribute the trend to growing expectations and ignorance. “Genetically, a donor of high IQ does not ensure an intelligent child. We try to match the donor’s height, built, colour of skin, eyes and hair with those of the recipient’s husband,” she says. “Several of my Parsi and Jain patients are particular about religion. There are a few who want vegetarian donors.” Doctors are sought-after donors. Fortunately for sperm banks, medical students constitute active donors and are paid Rs300 upwards per sitting. Patients often ask for the donor’s photograph. “We never reveal the identity of donors. We ask them to trust us,” says Dr Kamala Selvaraj of GG Hospital, Chennai.
With no law or governing body monitoring the country’s 430 IVF clinics and three sperm banks the bottom line is trust. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has suggested an Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Act. “Donor insemination is part of mainstream medicine and it doesn’t require separate law,” says Malpani. Selvaraj disagrees. “We don’t know if every centre has trained personnel and proper equipment.” Rajnish Sehgal, director, Cryocell India, the biggest chain of sperm banks, is all for a comprehensive law: “There are too many clinics doing the procedure. Only a law can streamline the clutter.”
How Jodie fostered her kids
Hollywood actor Jodie Foster searched for the perfect sperm donor in 1998, and proudly announced that after a long hunt, she had been impregnated with the gametes of a tall, dark, handsome scientist with an IQ of 160. Delighted with the result, she went back to the same clinic for her second child in 2002.
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