Sperm donor: “Happy Valentines Day! I’m your father!”
by: Karen Cole - Feb 19, 2007 - comment
The New York Times featured an unusual Valentines Day story this year.
It seems a formerly anonymous California sperm donor decided the occasion would be a good one for contacting his many and far-flung offspring after reading that two of them had located each other through a donor registry.
The Times explained that in the late 1980s Jeffrey Harrison was California Cryobank’s Donor 150, “one of the sperm bank’s most-requested donors, with a profile that described him as 6 foot and blue-eyed with interests in philosophy, music and drama.”
Evidently those sought-after attributes never translated into an income-producing career. Today, at age 50, Harrison lives with his four dogs in a recreational vehicle near the Venice section of Los Angeles and supports himself by dog-sitting and doing other odd jobs.
Harrison says the sperm bank paid him $400 a month to donate twice weekly for four years, so the six progeny who have identified themselves may be just the first of many.
Wendy Kramer, also the product of donor sperm, created the sibling registry where Harrison’s clan has located each other. “You don’t know what to expect,” Ms. Kramer said of these newfound relationships. “How do we define this family, and what are we to each other?”
Good questions, Wendy.
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