Why is it illegal for sperm donor to demand a dad on the scene? ANN WIDDECOMBE
SOME children will grow up without fathers through premature death, acrimonious divorce, desertion and irresponsibility following one-night stands and most people would pity the child for not having a father.
Why then is it odd if a sperm donor specifies that he wants any child born with his assistance to have a father? Why is it wrong to believe that it is wrong deliberately to create a fatherless child?
Neil Gaskell is such a donor, wanting neither to act as a stud for single women nor to assist gay couples. Now that specification is against the law but it wasn't when he signed the form and he has just won a substantial payout from the fertility clinic which simply ignored his wishes.
Doubtless he will be trolled but, principles aside, there was another reason for his wanting his sperm to go only to heterosexual couples and it was a very practical one: he says honestly that if there were a father figure on the scene then there would be less chance of any child wanting contact with him later on.
Presumably his nightmare was getting phone calls saying "hallo, dad", from anything up to 10 children.
It is one thing to hand over a child for adoption, with all the emotional trauma involved, but quite another to hand over a splodge of genetic material with which there is no bond but that of cold science.
Gaskell presumably reasoned that if a child had grown up from day one knowing another man as father then any enquiry he or she might subsequently make would be simply to find a piece of jigsaw rather than to seek something achingly missing.
The law allowing a young person of 18 to be supplied with a donor's name and address was introduced in 2005 and applied only to children born after the date of its passing.
I suspect that in a few years' time there will be a lot of families facing what Mr Gaskell tried to avoid as youngsters turn up looking just like Dad.