Celebrity Knock-Off Sperm?
Posted by Osagie Obasogie September 27, 2009
Biopolitical Times
The relationship between assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) and celebrity status is odd. Celebrities themselves seem to have an unusually high number of multiple births, undoubtedly fueled in part by various ARTs. And people have become celebrities through ARTs, like Jon and Kate Gosselin and Nadya “Octomom” Suleman. Suleman has even been accused of trying to look like a celebrity: Angelina Jolie.
But now prospective parents can take this to a whole new level: creating children with celebrity sperm. Well, ok, at least sperm from people who kinda look like someone famous. California Cryobank recently launched its “Donor Look-A-Like” program, in which sperm donors are not only cataloged by typical traits such as hair or skin color, but which celebrity they most closely resemble. Want sperm from someone who vaguely resembles Ben Affleck, Brett Favre, and Brody Jenner? Well, Donor 11437 is your man.
This isn’t an entirely new idea. In fact, the early 1980s saw the birth of the Repository for Germinal Choice – aka the Nobel sperm bank – whose aim was to collect and disperse sperm samples from actual Nobel Prize winners in order to multiply society’s “best” genes. (It didn’t work out too well; turns out that women seeking sperm weren’t excited about getting it from wrinkled old geniuses. But imagine the run on the bank that might occur if a broker offered sperm samples from Oscar winners or sports celebrities.)
While the Nobel Sperm Bank was a much-criticized and failed attempt at positive eugenics, California Cryobank’s Donor Look-A-Likes program is no less troubling in that it promotes the idea that children are objects to be engineered – even for the most superficial reasons – rather than persons who should be unconditionally loved. Given America’s obsession with celebrity and appearance, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if companies pushing celebrity knock-off sperm see more demand than the Nobel sperm bank. Why try to be smart when you can be pretty?
But now prospective parents can take this to a whole new level: creating children with celebrity sperm. Well, ok, at least sperm from people who kinda look like someone famous. California Cryobank recently launched its “Donor Look-A-Like” program, in which sperm donors are not only cataloged by typical traits such as hair or skin color, but which celebrity they most closely resemble. Want sperm from someone who vaguely resembles Ben Affleck, Brett Favre, and Brody Jenner? Well, Donor 11437 is your man.
This isn’t an entirely new idea. In fact, the early 1980s saw the birth of the Repository for Germinal Choice – aka the Nobel sperm bank – whose aim was to collect and disperse sperm samples from actual Nobel Prize winners in order to multiply society’s “best” genes. (It didn’t work out too well; turns out that women seeking sperm weren’t excited about getting it from wrinkled old geniuses. But imagine the run on the bank that might occur if a broker offered sperm samples from Oscar winners or sports celebrities.)
While the Nobel Sperm Bank was a much-criticized and failed attempt at positive eugenics, California Cryobank’s Donor Look-A-Likes program is no less troubling in that it promotes the idea that children are objects to be engineered – even for the most superficial reasons – rather than persons who should be unconditionally loved. Given America’s obsession with celebrity and appearance, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if companies pushing celebrity knock-off sperm see more demand than the Nobel sperm bank. Why try to be smart when you can be pretty?
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