Why is America the Largest Exporter of Sperm in the World?
Why is America the Largest Exporter of Sperm in the World?
The U.S. is a leader in exporting automobiles, pharmaceuticals, plastics and believe it or non-human sperm. For those readers wondering why America is the largest exporter of sperm in the world, wonder no more. Read on for the surprising answer.
The world’s largest sperm bank, Cryos International, confirms that the global sperm donation business is booming. The company currently delivers sperm to approximately 90 countries and estimates that they are responsible for as many as 70,000 babies. Studies estimate that in the U.S. somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 babies are born because of sperm donation.
In fact, the specific number could be significantly higher because the fertility industry is not legally required to report statistics on the number of babies born every year. Sperm donation itself has changed since the 1950s and continues to change as the world itself changes. A sociologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, Rene Almeling, interviewed donors while doing research for her book $ex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm.
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She learned that most men consider donating sperm to be “an easy job.” The donors, however, do acknowledge that biologically-speaking this can make the fathers. There are, however, no moral judgments involved and, unlike woman donating eggs, the practice has almost always been found accepted.
Ruth Graham, a journalist for The Slate, reports that Canada has a fertility crisis and their wishful parents-to-be look to their southern neighbors to aid them with the huge sperm deficit. She confirms that the U.S. “is the biggest exporter of sperm in the world.” While most American-made sperm remains in the U.S., international demand for red, white and blue sperm continues to rise.
American freedom, however, is truly why America is the largest exporter of sperm. Seriously, sources such as The Business Insider and The Verge agree that donating sperm in the United States is a “legal Wild West,” because federal agencies don’t regulate them past the required illness screenings. More importantly, anonymity is a common practice.
Not so in Canada and other countries. Elsewhere sperm donors often must provide contact information for any and all potential children once they become legal adults. Take the U.K. for example.
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The Guardian reported that three years after a 2005 ban on donor anonymity, there was a sharp drop in fertility treatments because potential donors wanted to avoid the chance of being contacted by any potential offspring. There are also factions that frown upon earning a paycheck for selling one’s sperm, too. What’s the point of donating sperm if you cannot be anonymous or be paid for it?
That could be what Canadian men think since there are only 60 donors in a country where there are millions of men. Another reason why the U.S. is the largest exporter of sperm is variety. U.S. sperm banks offer diversity and more freedom of choice in terms of race, religion, creed and color.
The U.S. also makes it convenient to order sperm. All one needs to do is surf to the sperm bank’s official website, choose all the desired specific characteristics (such as eye color), and click on the “search” button. Next, check your father-to-be and you are ready to check out.
The sperm bank checks your order and freezes your sperm with some liquid nitrogen and ships it right to your door in what some describe as “a thermos-like” storage container known as a Dewar. Yes, the final reason why the U.S. is the largest exporter of sperm is because when you come to America for sperm: it’s just a couple of clicks away. What more could one ask?
Businessinsider.com Americanvalues.org