Scatter Your Seed, Show Your Face

Great Britain appears to be suffering from a shortage of sperm donors:

Since April last year, British sperm donors have been denied the right to anonymity, and on Friday regulations came into force which mean foreign donors must also register their details before their sperm can be used in this country.

Specialists fear that the change will discourage even more donors from volunteering their services, with all of Britain's 93 fertility clinics set to suffer because of rules which allow donor-created children to seek out their natural fathers when they reach the age of 18.

A spokesman for the private London Fertility Centre said the shortage of sperm was at crisis level. [...]

In 2000, there were 325 registered donors in the UK, but this number fell to 255 in 2003 before reaching its lowest figure ever of 169 last year.

I can't imagine what it's like to not know a father's identity, and applaud anything that gives people the choice of finding their biological fathers.

The rules also seem to make it possible for siblings seeded by the same donor to find each other. And while one wouldn't need to choose between finding siblings or a father, I'm fascinated by a hypothetical question: if your father was a sperm donor, who would you rather know -- him, or your brothers and sisters?

Clinics fear sperm shortage as anonymity ends [Scotsman.com]