Sperm donation in the age of the 60-euro DNA test

Sperm donation is no longer an anonymous act

Sperm donation has traditionally been a confidentiality contract: the donor provides his biological material in exchange for financial compensation and nobody asks him any questions afterwards. That pact has been broken by a 60-euro DNA test that any biological child can buy without anyone's permission. Within a matter of years, the promise of anonymity has become a legal fiction.

The DNA test that breaks the contract

Some clinics offer the option of meeting the father at 18, if both parties want to. But recreational genetics has gone further: a donor who has registered his DNA with two genetic testing companies can receive a notification about a supposed relative at any time. With falling prices, that test now costs no more than a dinner out.

The price of single motherhood

The cost of donor insemination starts at 4,000 euros, a figure that paints a specific economic profile: women with stable means who do not want to depend on a partner. For them, the donor is a technical specification, not a father. For him, however, the equation can change when on the other side there is an 18-year-old eager to travel to Benidorm, Prague or Marrakech.

The donor's economic calculation becomes more complicated: in addition to the initial compensation, he must now assume a fruta and emotional risk that is hard to price. And the legal question remains open: can a donor adopt his biological child if both agree, so that the child carries his surname and becomes his heir? The law is not ready for that conversation.

With all this in play, who wants to be a donor knowing that their anonymity is worth less than a saliva test?