Aggregated News
In 1988 the Office of Technology Assessment estimated that 30,000 children were born via donor insemination during the year 1986/87 in the US (1).
More than a quarter of a century later- and with no further research or system for record keeping, '30,000 annual births' is still trotted out in academia, lectures and the media (2). Sometimes the number is doubled, probably to allow for the passage of time, and occasionally a range of 30,000 - 60,000 is deployed.
Yet so much about donor insemination has changed during this time. Using either of the whole figures is scientifically unjustifiable, and the range is just as flawed.
The media, and the reproductive industry’s "experts" should not be using such patently erroneous figures. Rather, they should be noting that there is no reliable method of assessing how many children are conceived gamete donation each year. (Yes, this is also true for the egg donation industry as well- more than 40% of surveyed egg donor parents were never asked to report their live births.) (3) They should be pointing out that the USA...
More than a quarter of a century later- and with no further research or system for record keeping, '30,000 annual births' is still trotted out in academia, lectures and the media (2). Sometimes the number is doubled, probably to allow for the passage of time, and occasionally a range of 30,000 - 60,000 is deployed.
Yet so much about donor insemination has changed during this time. Using either of the whole figures is scientifically unjustifiable, and the range is just as flawed.
The media, and the reproductive industry’s "experts" should not be using such patently erroneous figures. Rather, they should be noting that there is no reliable method of assessing how many children are conceived gamete donation each year. (Yes, this is also true for the egg donation industry as well- more than 40% of surveyed egg donor parents were never asked to report their live births.) (3) They should be pointing out that the USA...