A sperm bank in China is holding a contest to encourage college-aged men to donate, in another bid to bolster the country’s low fertility rate. The facility is painting anonymous sperm donation as a “humanitarian” activity akin to blood donation.
The Henan Human Sperm Bank is hosting a sperm quality competition, with awards for the college student boasting the highest sperm count and the most vigorous sperm. Students will be able to donate 50 times over 20 days, receiving 6,100 yuan ($1,150) each time they do. Those who reach the 20-donation mark will also receive a “bonus” of 2,100 yuan ($287). Staff at the facility told local media they want university students so they can get “high quality” sperm.
The Henan facility is one of 27 across China, several of which have held similar contests to encourage donations. “Due to environmental pollution and work pressure, the overall sperm quality has deteriorated. This has led to infertility in a number of married couples, bringing disharmony to their families and society,” the facility said on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. “Like blood, sperm donation is a humanitarian activity. It can bring good news to infertile couples. Therefore, we call on university students to donate sperm to make a contribution to society.”
Winners will remain anonymous but will be referred to as “nameless heroes” throughout China.
Though sperm and egg donation are painted as humanitarian, the lack of knowledge about one’s family of origin can cause difficulties for donor-conceived individuals. According to a recent Live Action News report, “A study out of Harvard Medical School found that 62% of children conceived through donor technologies, including surrogacy, believe it to be unethical and immoral. In short, they feel like business transactions.” In the UK, individuals conceived with donor sperm or eggs will soon be allowed to learn the identities of their biological parents — something important to many individuals conceived using reproductive technologies.
After decades of population control through China’s notorious and oppressive One-Child Policy, the country has now changed course to encourage people to have children due to plummeting fertility rates. Earlier this year, China reported more deaths than births for the first time in 60 years.
“In the long run, we are going to see a China the world has never seen,” Wang Feng, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Irvine who specializes in China’s demographics, told the New York Times when the report was released. “It will no longer be the young, vibrant, growing population. We will start to appreciate China, in terms of its population, as an old and shrinking population.”
Despite the change in reproductive policies, many adults in China are refusing to have children; pregnancy discrimination is still extremely commonplace, and a crippling gender imbalance still plagues the country.
