Smart Sperm
2003-06-13 | 8:25 a.m.

2nd posting of the day - an article from www.cnn.com :

BEIJING, China (AP) -- China's first "smart sperm" bank, which accepts only highly educated donors, says it has 400 women on a waiting list for fertilization.

Now it needs donors. Four years after it was set up, the center, set up in 1999, says it has fewer than 20.

"The biggest problem we are facing is the lack of suitable donors," its director, Huang Ping, told the official Xinhua News Agency.

The creation of the center in the southwestern city of Chengdu set off a debate in the Chinese press over its focus on the sperm of highly educated men.

Donors are required to have academic qualifications equal to a university associate professor, and the selection process can take up to six months.

"Potential donors are usually busy men," Huang said. "They have little time to spend on this."

Most of China's family planning efforts are aimed at reining in the growth of its population of 1.3 billion people. But the government has begun to support research into fertility treatments, sperm banks and other ways to help childless couples conceive.

Four couples have had children with the help of the Chengdu sperm bank, Xinhua said. It said the center was tracking the oldest -- a 2-year-old -- with plans to issue a research report later.

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