Sperm donors rush holiday offer
By CNN's Geoff Hiscock
 |
Part of the advertisement that ran in a Canadian student newspaper.
Story Tools
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
|
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.
Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
|
|
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- A free trip to Australia in return for sperm: that's the offer exciting male students at Canada's University of Calgary.
In an advertisement that has been running in the university's student newspaper Gauntlet, an Australian fertility clinic is offering men between 18 and 40 a two-week holiday in the rural city of Albury in return for sperm.
There's no catch -- the men have to be healthy, mentally fit, pass a blood test and a semen analysis and undergo counseling.
In return, they have to be prepared to produce semen every second day and be identified as the donor.
The Reproductive Medicine Center in Albury, 560 kilometers (340 miles) southwest of Sydney, told CNN Friday that there had been a strong response.
The clinic's program manager Ruth Keat said there had been 15-20 "serious" inquiries for enrollment packs. These inquiries would be followed up by phone interviews, with the first Canadian donors expected to reach Australia between March and May next year.
Keat said the advertisement was placed in Canada because the center was having difficulty finding non-anonymous donors in Australia, despite advertising widely.
An impending law change in the Australian state of New South Wales will entitle children to find out the name of their biological parents when they are older.
That is believed to be one factor scaring off potential Australian donors.
The clinic's advertisement, which ran for three issues in late November and early December, has appeared in the sports section of the Gauntlet, under the results for the men's basketball and the women's hockey.
The center told CNN it chose to advertise in Calgary because one of its gynecologists came from the Canadian city and was able to organize the necessary health checks there.
It said the cost of the offer, covering a return Canada-Australia flight, accommodation for two weeks and an allowance of $150 a day, was about Aust. $7000 (about $5180) per person.
The advertisement says potential donors must be "available every second day to produce a semen sample".
