Daddy is a sperm donor

Over at the website for ABC News of all places, is a fascinating article titled "Confessions of a Sperm Donor: Hundreds of Kids."

Perhaps not surprisingly, it turns out that using sperm donations to conceive children has complications for both the donors and the children. Maybe the movie "The Kids Are All Right" (about a lesbian couple and their children conceived with a sperm donor) would have been more aptly named It's Complicated. (That movie, by the way, at least presented an honest portrayal of the harm kids suffer when their parents divorce. Not that I recommend it.)

The ABC News articled noted that a survey conducted by the Commission on Parenthood's Future of 485 children conceived using sperm donations concluded that "they were more troubled and depression-prone than other young adults."

And it's no picnic for young children either. Tim Gullicksen, a sperm donor interviewed for the piece, said he started donating while in college and continued for 10 years. He was promised that approximately 10 families would receive his sperm, but now, he said, "It's pretty clear there are 80 or 90 kids out there."

About three years ago he was contacted for the first time by one of his offspring, a 9-year-old boy from Texas. According to Gullicksen, "He had been pestering his mom about where his dad was since he was a toddler. He had no father figure and he actually kept a box under his bed where he kept all his school projects and wrote 'Daddy' on the box."

Gullicksen has since connected with a total of seven children, and makes an effort to be a part of their lives to the extent that he can, even holding a once-a-year "family reunion" for these seven half-siblings. The circumstances surrounding these children's birth, Gullicksen pointed out, cause "a lot of conflict and angst in their lives and if there is a way I can help with that, I do."

Gullicksen deserves a lot of credit for doing the little he can. But the anecdote about his son keeping a box for "Daddy" under his bed speaks volumes. Who would willingly, knowingly relegate a child to such a life?