Sperm banks
drying up as donors shy away
Agence France Presse
February 20, 2001
SINGAPORE
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SINGAPORE'S sperm banks
have seen a dramatic drop in donors due to tedious requirements,
lack of financial incentives and sheer male shyness, according to a
report published Feb 20.
The city-state's three sperm banks,
however, have refused to follow the lead of sperm banks in
the West which offer lucrative cash incentives for sperm donations
from intellectuals and supermodels, opting instead to appeal to a
sense of national service and altruism.
Singapore, a
multi-racial island of just over three million people, has a
fast-ageing society and needs more babies to replenish its native
population. Couples are being encouraged to have more kids after a
birth-control campaign in previous decades proved too
successful.
A study by Project Eyeball, a tabloid and
Internet website belonging to the same group as the Straits
Times, showed that there were 40 to 50 donors at the National
University Hospital (NUH) sperm
bank from 1990
to 1994. In the past three years there were only 15 donors. Sharp
drops were also reported by two other sperm
banks.
Dr Chong Yap Seng, coordinator of the NUH sperm
bank, said it
was hard to convince Singaporean men that donating their
sperm is
essential.
"Many still see the problem as one of fate, that the
couple can't have children, and that it's not a life and death
situation," he said.
A mini-poll conducted by Project Eyeball showed
that four in 10 men would donate sperm -- for
money. But the sperm banks
were against commercialising donations.
Dr Fong Yang of the Singapore
General Hospital said donating sperm "is
supposed to be an altruistic thing" to help couples hindered by
infertility problems, suggesting instead that a "transportation
allowance" of S$150 (US$86) be increased a little.
Apart from lack of cash incentives, the donation process
is too troublesome, doctors said, with men who want to provide
their sperm having to
undergo screening for diseases and sperm quality,
a process than can take six months.
There is also the fear of consanguinity or close relatives
getting matched, which doctors called a very remote
possibility.
