Should there be a limit on how many offspring a single sperm donor can father?

A recent article in the New York Times highlighted the repeated use of single sperm donors in the United States. 

 

One mother who used donated sperm to conceive says a registry she set up for her child's half brothers and sisters now has over 150 names - all fathered by a single donor.

 

"It's wild when we see them all together -- they all look alike," says 48-year-old Cynthia Daily. 

 

But Daily and other parents have growing concerns about the potentially negative implications of single donors fathering multiple children.

 

Their worries include rare disease control and the potential for accidental incest.

 

"We have more rules that go into place when you buy a used car than when you buy sperm," Debora L. Spar, president of Barnard College and author of The Baby Business: How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception told the New York Times.

 

Canada has no limits on the number of single-donor offspring, though clinics tend to follow U.S. regulation that regulates 25 offspring per population of 800,000.