Focus
Sperm shortage breeds frustration
By Cui Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-15 07:50
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All in the genes
Even without the high-standard requirements, clinics are struggling to get potential donors through their doors.
Although a growing number of Chinese men are willing to give blood, most are still too embarrassed to even talk about sperm, let alone offer a sample. Some refuse on moral grounds, while others simply fear their friends and family will find out.
Wang admitted he has not told his parents or girlfriend about his donation because he feels they "will kill me for letting a stranger use the precious family seed".
"I'll just be glad if I can help a childless couple," said the student at China University of Mining and Technology. "Actually, I should thank them for continuing my family line."
Beijing's sperm bank, which is run by the National Research Institute of Family Planning, receives on average just two visitors a day, although a staff member said numbers are beginning to increase.
The rise is thanks largely to a build-up of trust, with collectors in the capital guaranteeing anonymity for donors by providing samples directly to hospitals to use in artificial insemination treatments, rather than to individual couples.
However, confusion over what actually happens at the sperm banks remains.
Workers at the Beijing bank told China Daily they regularly receive calls from men to ask if "the female nurses lend donors a helping hand". They blamed fake pictures published on the Internet last year.
"People have many misunderstandings," said chief consultant Chen. "The men are totally on their own (in the collection rooms). We don't even provide pornographic magazines or videos because they're illegal in China.
"What we do is very serious and strictly regulated," he added.