The federal government outlawed the sale of human organs in 1984, and until a recent legal challenge that even included a ban against receiving compensation for bone marrow. For organs like kidneys, an altruistic donation, sometimes from a complete stranger, is the only legal method of kidney exchange, and any form of compensation is illegal.
Given the federal ban on compensation for human organs, you would think the federal government would have no problem with Trent Arsenault, who donates sperm for free. But you would be very, very wrong, see this New York Daily News article:
"The Food and Drug Administration wants to shut down a do-it-yourself sperm bank of one. Trent Arsenault, 36, says he donates semen to low-income and same-sex couples who face hurdles acquiring it at licensed sperm banks.
"It is helping people in need," the Fremont, California, resident told CBS San Francisco. "I don't make any money, I don't charge people anything. And it's just helping childless couples have children."
The FDA disagrees. In a Cease Manufacturing letter delivered on Nov. 1 of last year, the FDA classified Arsenault's setup as a "firm" that "recovers and distributes semen and therefore is a manufacturer of human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue-based products.
Arsenault certainly seems to be meeting a demand. He told CBS he has received some 20,000 email inquiries and he has fathered 14 children since his first sperm donation to a teacher in 2004. The FDA estimated that Arsenault dealt out 328 semen donations to 46 recipients between 2006 and 2010.
To market the free sperm donations, Arsenault started the Web site TrentDonor.org, where he displays a wealth of personal information ranging from his ethnic background and personal identification documents to medical reports displaying his sperm count and test results for sexually transmitted diseases. On a page titled "Hospital photos sent by recipients," Arsenault displays 15 images of babies presumably fathered with his assistance."
MP: As far as I can tell, the FDA's case against Trent Arsenault is still pending.
HT: Morgan Frank
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