World's Top Sperm Donors Live in Denmark

[Lagirl]

Hey Seashell!

You're always on the lookout for off this sort of stuff.

World's Top Sperm Donors Live in Denmark
Sun Dec 28, 5:55 PM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Elinor Schang

AARHUS, Denmark (Reuters) - Danes are spreading their genes around the world faster than ever aided by exports from local firm Cryos International, the world's biggest sperm bank.

Each year Danish men donate sperm that contributes to around 1,000 pregnancies, and with increasing demand from Americans, Cryos has opened its first New York office -- on Broadway.

Thousands of men visit Cryos's three Danish donation centers, most of them students. They are paid $40.50 for each donation.

Visiting the donor room is not enough to qualify, though --only around 10 percent of the donations are of high enough quality to pass Cryos' qualifications.

Childless couples can browse through about 250 successful donors on Cryos' U.S. web, under Viking aliases such as Birk, Gorm, Olaf and Thor alongside a curriculum vitae which lists hair and eye color, height, education and professional details.

Cryos, which has currently accepts only Danish donors, exports to 40 countries. Within a year or two, Indian, Asian and African men will also be able to donate to Cryos, when it launches a global franchise.

Why does Denmark, with its 5.3 million people, donate more sperm than any other country?

Good technology and social acceptance, says Cryos founder and chief executive Ole Schou.

"We have developed a technique where at least 30 percent become pregnant after the first treatment. Most other donation centers can't reach more than 10 percent," he explained.

A highly secularized country, Denmark has removed many taboos which make donations awkward in other countries, Schou said. The same could be said of other Nordic countries and might explain why one-third of the world's sperm industry is found in the region.

But this position is under threat.

KEY ANONYMITY

In Norway there are no private insemination clinics and very few men donate semen. Since the country passed a law in November banning anonymous donations, even these will stop, Schou said.

"This is only wishful thinking to help the child. The reality is that when anonymity goes, so do the donors," he said.

Finnish men have become less keen on donating semen amid concerns that their right to anonymity is at stake since fertility treatment legislation was put to parliament a year ago, which would have given children an unconditional right to gain information about the donor.

It was pulled prior to general elections before a decision was made and is awaiting debate in parliament.

Around 10-15 percent of couples worldwide are involuntarily childless, a third because of physical problems with the man. Apart from insemination, male infertility remedies include testosterone injections and ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), where only one healthy sperm is needed.

SWEDISH MODEL

Sweden opened its donor files in 1985 after a court case deemed a child fatherless when the biological mother conceived a baby through insemination without the father's consent and he rejected any legal relationship when the couple separated.

Norway followed the Swedish model when it passed its law. Schou said that 500 to 800 Swedish couples travel abroad every year for insemination -- mostly to Denmark -- because of the lack of donors.

"Very few donors want 'their' children to be able to contact them, that's the reality. In Sweden, donors diminished overnight when anonymity was taken away and forced most Swedish couples wanting insemination to go to Denmark."

Cryos has found that around 12 percent of its donors would continue to provide sperm if their right to anonymity was abolished. About 8 percent would accept one of their biological offspring contacting them.

"It's normal for part of the population not to know who their biological father is ... Therefore one can't demand every child's right to know its biological parents," Schou said.

Iceland has chosen to allow both non-anonymous and anonymous semen donations. An ideal solution, Schou said, which would not threaten the company's operations.

[Jens_Lange]

Well, this article reminded me of something I read a while back.
Danish men are actually more than just Great men, they are also Great fathers.


*****
Danish Dads Are the World’s Most Engaged
According to a study made by researchers at California State University and Texas Tech University Danish dads are the world’s most engaged. The researchers have interviewed more than 10,000 fathers in 13 different countries. The study revealed that Danish dads spend the most time with their children on average. However, the reason should probably be found in the fact that Denmark has one of the highest employment rates in Western Europe for both men and women. The strong presence of women on the job market means that the Danish dads are forced to participate in the chores at home to make family life work. A Danish family therapist says that the active fatherhood trend also owes its origins to the nation’s feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s.
*****

http://www.denmarkemb.org/news/news_05_30_03.html

This article was found on the Danish Embassy in Washington's website.

[Edited by Xesc on 1st January 2004 at 22:31]