Messages a woman sent via free messaging app Line to a sperm donor after she successfully gave birth are seen in this partially modified image taken on Oct. 15, 2021. (Mainichi/Yuki Nakagawa)
The mother a of a 1-year-old child conceived with sperm from a donor found online is seen in this image taken in the Kanto region on Oct. 15, 2021. (Mainichi/Yuki Nakagawa)
TOKYO -- "I have ceased (sperm) donation activities," "With the exception of emergencies, I will not respond to messages." So read the texts a 28-year-old sperm donor sent to a 41-year-old woman living in east Japan's Kanto region in mid-October via the free messaging app Line. She now has a 1-year-old son with the sperm he provided.
Around age 37, while struggling to conceive with her husband, the woman began considering artificial insemination using sperm provided by a third party. But the hospital she found online suspended its service due to a lack of donors. Her age meant it would have been a late-stage birth, and she didn't wait for appointments to restart.
After searching for a donor online, she received, with her husband's permission, a container of donated sperm. The man said he would meet the child in future. She thought that if she could tell what kind of person the donor was, she would tell the child they were born with the donor's help, too.
She had some concerns about the donor. More than 50 children had been born from his donations, and he had a family of his own. The woman sensed he would probably stop providing sperm sooner or later. Still, she was surprised by the aforementioned message telling her he would not respond in principle -- though there was nothing in particular written about any face-to-face meeting with the child. Nevertheless, she accepted the situation, thinking that it was not so out of the ordinary for something like this to happen online. She has no regrets about giving birth. Her husband, too, loves the child as their own first-born son.
The woman says she now has no intention of telling her son he was born via a sperm donation. If she did, her son would ask who the donor was. She is determined to raise the child as the couple's own, just as she has until now.
Before the man stopped providing sperm donations, he agreed to meet with a Mainichi Shimbun reporter in Tokyo. At around age 22 he had a physically demanding job, and he felt his body had reached its limit and that it would be difficult for him to have children. He then found out that sperm donors existed abroad, though medical institutions in Japan did not accept them. It was then that he started his own blog and website, and began providing sperm.
The people seeking donations were all individuals who couldn't be accepted for treatment at medical institutions. He said everyone looked scared in their first meeting, but he thought this was probably the only choice they had. He said the gratitude he received from people taking the donations sustained his activities. Aged 26, he married his wife after telling her about his sperm donation activities. They now have two young children.
As to why he stopped providing sperm, the man said via Line that a sperm bank had been set up in Japan, and that more online donors had emerged. The Mainichi Shimbun also asked if he had met any of the children born from his donations, but he has yet to respond.
Another online donor is a company employee in Saitama Prefecture in his 40s. He has lost contact with about half of the 19 women who have had children with his sperm after they reported successful births. He is willing to meet the children if their parents want him to, and thinks it's fine to reveal his identity to people he deems trustworthy. While 19 people have reported giving birth, there are many others who didn't respond when he asked them if they had conceived after receiving donations. He can't help feeling there are also people who achieved conception but didn't let him know.
(Japanese original by Yuki Nakagawa, Lifestyle and Medical News Department)
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