Indian-origin doctor offers UK's first 'order a daddy' app

An Indian-origin doctor from a UK sperm bank has launched a new mobile app for women who can browse and pick the right candidate online to father her child.

Dr Kamal Ahuja, scientific director of the London Sperm Bank, believes the app is the first-of-its-kind in the world. "You make all the transactions online, like you do anything else these days. This allows a woman who wants to get a sperm donor to gain control in the privacy of her own home and to choose and decide in her own time. We think this is the first-of-its-kind in the world," he was quoted as saying by the 'The Sunday Times'.

The London Sperm Bank's app - dubbed 'order a daddy' app by the newspaper - allows women to order sperm just as they would carry out any other online transaction. It allows women to browse for potential fathers by choosing a donor with desired physical characteristics such as hair and eye colour or height. They can also filter applicants by educational level and occupation and read a description of their personality and create an online wish-list. A payment of 950 pounds, made via the app, is required for a donor's sperm sample, which is then delivered to the fertility clinic where the woman is being treated.

About half of Britain's IVF clinics, including private and the UK's state-funded National Health Service (NHS) institutions, are understood to have registered to use the service. The app is legal and meets the requirements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), Britain's IVF regulator.