The trouble with paying for sperm

Every so often people complain about a shortage of sperm donors in Canada. For example, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather recently suggested that because of the current legal prohibition on paying for sperm we don’t have enough Canadian donors. “The market,” he argues, “should be able to function.” The thought here seems to be that if only we could pay Canadian men for their sperm, then we could have all the sperm we want.

But why should we believe that greasing the palm will make the semen flow?

The so-called shortage of Canadian sperm is not about men being unwilling to donate without pay. It is about government health and safety regulations that protect the interests of people who use donated sperm as well as the interests and well-being of the children they conceive.

In 1996, Health Canada introduced semen regulations following a legal case involving a woman who was infected with HIV from donor semen. These regulations included strict exclusion criteria. As a result, men could no longer just come to a clinic, masturbate, and collect a paycheque...