The first thing college students interested in sperm donation want to know is how much they would be paid.
Dr G. K. BEDI, Assisted reproductive technology expert, Chandigarh
The absence of regulation has also attracted many unscrupulous players who cut costs by routinely forgoing even basic medical testing of donors or the obligatory quarantining of samples. “You cannot be careful enough,” says Bedi, recalling instances where patients had procured semen samples from local diagnostic laboratories that possess no facilities to wash or cryopreserve ( freeze) sperm cells.
Sehgal insists that human gamete donation cannot be a casual affair: “Samples from untested or inadequately tested donors could end up in- troducing life threatening diseases and genetic abnormalities in society.” Also, the repeated use of semen from a single donor to impregnate a large number of women in a specific area and social group, experts say, could significantly mess up the gene pool. Vicky Donor’s depiction of 53 happy mothers thanks to the super virile protagonist, Sehgal says, “would attract serious penalties, even jail, in some countries if it were so in real life”.
Most new callers to Chandigarhbased fertility clinics have been young students from the city’s colleges and Panjab University’s sprawling campus. “The first thing they all want to know is how much they would be paid,” says Bedi. She is, however, wary of taking on students as donors. “I prefer young married men with at least one offspring as direct sperm donors,” she says.
Sehgal’s gamete bank in Delhi, too, has been flooded with student queries. “It is mostly young guys who want to get their hands on a 32- inch TV— like Vicky,” he laughs. Though Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines stipulate the age bracket of 21 to 45 years for male donors, Sehgal says it is rare to find a man above 35 willing to donate semen: “It becomes a bit of a taboo after people marry.” The fact that most IVF clinics insist on the spouse’s consent also acts as a deterrent. Sehgal sources sperm mostly from students.
Unlike in the Bollywood film where the protagonist makes a career out of selling his spermatozoa, it is not all that lucrative in the real world. Donors at Bedi’s clinic receive Rs 400 each time they are called in for a sample. Sehgal, however, refuses to pay anything but out- of- pocket expenses. “No one seems to remember that it is sperm donation,” he points out.
Despite the inherent misinformation in its narrative, Vicky Donor has its biggest champion in India’s most celebrated sexologist. Dr Prakash Kothari, who watched the film along with his daughter in Mumbai, was amazed at the ease with which it shattered longheld myths. “It is a good thing and will help in reducing societal anxiety regarding sex,” Kothari told INDIA TODAY.