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‘Order a Daddy’: Sperm Delivery App Lets Users Pick Ideal Donor

October 11, 2016

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New UK service brings donor selection to the privacy of users’ homes.

Britons using in vitro fertilization (IVF) to try and conceive a child just received a very modern option courtesy of London Sperm Bank.

As reported by The Next Web, nicknamed “Order a Daddy,” the London Sperm Bank Donors app now allows registered users to browse sperm donor profiles.

After selecting preferred donor characteristics such as race, hair color, skin tone, eye color, height, and weight, it’s then possible to choose possible candidates and receive more detailed information on personality and medical history.

Donors are kept confidential and anonymous. Searches will not bring up any pictures, just “Donor” followed by a unique number.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, the scientific director of the London Sperm Bank, Dr. Kamal Ahuja, addressed the idea behind the sperm delivery app: “You make all the transactions online, like you do anything else these days. This allows a woman who wants to get a sperm donor to gain control in the privacy of her own home and to choose and decide in her own time. We think this is the first-of-its-kind in the world.”

‘Digital dads’ controversy

Others, though, feel the development of the app demeans the role of the father in procreation. “”How much further can we go in the trivialisation of parenthood?” the Director of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, Josephine Quintavalle told The Times. “This is reproduction via the mobile phone. It’s digital dads… this is the ultimate denigration of fatherhood.”

In response, London Sperm Bank released a statement: “Ordering sperm from an online catalogue or an app does not trivialise treatment, and every step meets the requirements of the HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority).”

While the app is free (on iOS and Android), and only for UK residents, those interested in receiving a donation have to pay a £950 fee.Then the desired sperm is shipped to a fertility clinic of clients’ choosing.

While there are those who see “Order a Daddy” as a negative development, for people struggling to conceive it could very well be a big step forward.

In fact—using a joke that simply too good to pass up—you might even say it’s an idea whose time has come.

Image source: London Sperm Bank app

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.