Thursday, May 05, 2005

FDA bans gay sperm

The FDA is banning gay sperm, but:
The FDA rules do not prohibit gay men from serving as "directed" sperm donors. If a woman wishing to become pregnant knows a gay man and asks that he provide sperm for artificial insemination, a clinic could provide that service even if the man had engaged in sex with other men within five years.

However, Traiman said some lesbian couples do not have a gay friend they know and trust well enough to be the biological father of their child, and would thus prefer an anonymous donor.

Dr. Deborah Cohan, an obstetrics and gynecology instructor at the University of California, San Francisco, said some lesbians prefer to receive sperm from a gay donor because they feel such a man would be more receptive to the concept of a family headed by a same-sex couple.

"This rule will make things legally more difficult for them," she said. "I can't think of a scientifically valid reason -- it has to be an issue of discrimination."
So if a lesbian wants gay sperm and not hetero sperm for political reasons, that is okay, but if a woman prefers hetero sperm for health reasons, then that is "discrimination". Yes, it is discrimination either way, but women ought to be discriminating about who inseminates them.

No comments: