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Sperm Donation is Full of Euphemisms, and an 11-Year-Old is Full of Questions

Since agreeing to become a sperm donor for my good friends, Tori and Kelly, I’ve noticed an impressive variety of euphemisms are used when discussing the subject in polite company. My mother regularly calls to inquire how “that thing” is going “with the girls,” for example, and acquaintances will praise me for my decision to “donate,” as if I’ve just dropped off some gently used housewares at my local Salvation Army.

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Kan. case reveals risks with assisted reproduction

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The case of a Kansas sperm donor being sued by the state for child support underscores a confusing patchwork of aging laws that govern assisted reproduction in the United States and often lead to litigation and frustration among would-be parents.

Complex questions about parental responsibility resurfaced late last year, as Kansas officials went after a Topeka man who answered a Craigslist ad from a lesbian couple seeking a sperm donor. Because no doctor was involved in the artificial insemination, the state sought to hold William Marotta financially responsible for the child when the women split up and one of them sought public assistance. A hearing is set for April.

Many states haven’t updated their laws to address the evolution of family structures — such as same-sex families, single women conceiving with donated sperm or artificial inseminations performed without a doctor’s involvement. At-home insemination kits are inexpensive, and obtaining sperm from a friend, or even a donor met over the Internet, allows women to avoid medical costs that generally aren’t covered by insurance. Read full article.

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Court: Ind. man must support kids by sperm donor

MUNCIE, Ind. — An appeals court ruled Tuesday that a man whose then-wife conceived two children using the sperm of a family friend must provide financial support for the youngsters.

The Indiana Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld an earlier ruling by Delaware Circuit Court 4 Judge John Feick that the children — born in 2004 and 2006, respectively — each qualify as a “child of marriage.”

When the husband filed for divorce in Feick’s court in October 2010, he acknowledged that “two children were born to (his spouse)” during their nine-year marriage, but said they were not his “biological children” and that he should not be held responsible for their financial support.

In its Tuesday ruling, the appeals court said after the couple married in 2001, they discussed having children, and were told by a physician that an effort to reverse the husband’s earlier vasectomy would likely be unsuccessful. Read full article.

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Kansas Wants Sperm Donor to Pay Child Support

The state of Kansas is seeking child support from a man who says he signed away all parental rights when he donated sperm to a lesbian couple.

“It came out of the blue. He was absolutely floored,” attorney Ben Swinnen said of his client William Marotta.

Marotta, 46, met Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner in 2009 when he responded to a Craigslist ad from a lesbian couple in Topeka, Kan., who were offering $50 per sperm donation, according to legal documents. Marotta and his wife met with the women and he agreed to donate to them without accepting the money, Swinnen said.

All three signed a sperm donor contract that stated that he would have no paternal rights and would be in no way responsible for any child that resulted from the donation.

“Jennifer and Angie further agree to indemnify William and hold him harmless for any child support payments demanded of him by any other person or entity, public or private, including any district attorney’s office or other state or county agency, regardless of the circumstances or said demand,” the agreement read. Read full article.