2008 Woodie Awards
Seeking college students: donate your DNA
Bryan Bergeron
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: FUSE
Originally published: 2/21/08 at 8:40 PM EST
Last update: 2/21/08 at 8:39 PM EST
Low on cash? Need some extra money to put in your pocket, or to help you pay off your college loans?
Just go down to the nearest sperm bank - they have the solution to your problems.
Recently, advertisements offering thousands of dollars for sperm or egg donations have caught the eye of college kids looking for money.
Whether it is to have some extra cash in their pockets or to help pay off their college loans, college students have suddenly become sperm banks' biggest clients. According to an article on askstudent.com, college students are currently making up 90 percent of the country's sperm donations.
Sperm banks around the country are currently advertising at the United States' most prestigious schools, such as Harvard or Yale. Mothers-to-be want to get the best DNA that is available to them, says askstudent.com.
College students today are interested in this kind of donation because it is a way to make money without interfering with their study habits, said Tanya Peebles, a public relations official for Cryobank, a California sperm bank.
Furthermore, sperm banks are interested in college students because they tend to meet the requirements needed to become a donor.
Donors must be between the ages of 19 and 39. They also need to be healthy and educated. These are all qualities of college students, Peebles said.
The whole process of donating human DNA in order to acquire some extra cash, however, brings up some serious moral and ethical questions.
Would you like knowing that you have children out there who you will never see or hear from? Is your financial situation an adequate reason to assist in the birth of a child? All of these questions need to be thought out thoroughly before going through with this process, Plattsburgh State Health Educator Jerimy Blowers said.
"My only suggestion to people who are going to go through with this would be to think about it, and see whether or not it goes with their values and what they believe in," Blowers said.
Just go down to the nearest sperm bank - they have the solution to your problems.
Recently, advertisements offering thousands of dollars for sperm or egg donations have caught the eye of college kids looking for money.
Whether it is to have some extra cash in their pockets or to help pay off their college loans, college students have suddenly become sperm banks' biggest clients. According to an article on askstudent.com, college students are currently making up 90 percent of the country's sperm donations.
Sperm banks around the country are currently advertising at the United States' most prestigious schools, such as Harvard or Yale. Mothers-to-be want to get the best DNA that is available to them, says askstudent.com.
College students today are interested in this kind of donation because it is a way to make money without interfering with their study habits, said Tanya Peebles, a public relations official for Cryobank, a California sperm bank.
Furthermore, sperm banks are interested in college students because they tend to meet the requirements needed to become a donor.
Donors must be between the ages of 19 and 39. They also need to be healthy and educated. These are all qualities of college students, Peebles said.
The whole process of donating human DNA in order to acquire some extra cash, however, brings up some serious moral and ethical questions.
Would you like knowing that you have children out there who you will never see or hear from? Is your financial situation an adequate reason to assist in the birth of a child? All of these questions need to be thought out thoroughly before going through with this process, Plattsburgh State Health Educator Jerimy Blowers said.
"My only suggestion to people who are going to go through with this would be to think about it, and see whether or not it goes with their values and what they believe in," Blowers said.
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