In vitro fertilisation is nothing but a process of fertilisation where an egg is then combined with sperm outside the body, in vitro. The process also involves monitoring and stimulating a woman’s ovulatory process, thereby removing the ovum or ova from the woman’s ovaries and allowing sperm to fertilise them in a liquid in a laboratory. Most cases of female infertility are caused by issues with ovulation and without ovulation, there are no eggs to be fertilized.
A 40-year-old Australian man who has stunned everyone by fathering 23 kids in one year. Alan Phan, now known as the country’s most prolific sperm donor, is allegedly under investigation after he fathered 23 children in a year.
Phan has been providing sperm both privately and through registered clinics in order to help out people wanting to become parents. Mr Phan, who has two children of his own, fathered 23 kids in one year through his donations.
While he has helped out many Aussies families, his actions are now being investigated by the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Authority (VARTA).
As British tabloid Daily Mail reports, Phan is under investigation by the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Authority for creating too many offspring. Clinics have told authorities that Phan had been donating sperm outside of their registers and hence he went on to father more children than is permitted by law. As per the Fertility Society of Australia, a man can create only ten families including his own children. But Phan has fathered 23 children in a year. Moreover, he is a married man with two children of his own.
“When I first started, I was only going to donate nine times,” the publication reported of his statement. “Then I received a message from a lady around Christmas saying the donation was successful, which became my tenth.’I thought, ‘Well, I’ve already gone over my limit, I’ll just help a few more,’ and it kind of blew out. Some of the original recipients weren’t too happy about it.”
When asked why he violated the law, he said that sperm donating is his hobby and he also compared it to a job he had to abstain from any sort of sex, work-out daily, and take plenty of supplements and vitamins in order to maintain the healthiness of his semen. He said that he never gathered courage to turn down women who were desperate for children, and at one point, he even donated to three women in a single day.
“I was pretty surprised at the amount of interest I received,” he added, explaining that he donated in Australia through the group Sperm Donation Australia. If someone wants to donate through a clinic, they are required by law to sign forms that state they can not create more than 10 families. If they cross the limit of donations, they will no longer be able to donate sperm through that clinic.
VARTA Chief Executive Officer, Louise Johnson said, “Once a treating clinic knows that more than 10 families have been formed through one donor’s donations, they cannot keep using that donor’s sperm”.
