Women who take more care picking a sofa than a father for their children

Kenzie Kilpatrick has been hailed as a hero in some circles. a saviour. a begetter of children, a keeper of dreams. Over t he past year, t he gay 2 6 - year- old has f athered t en children by nine women.

Most of them are lesbians who wanted to be mothers, but obviously encountered an understandable difficulty in the conception department. Kenzie was happy to oblige, to do the needful.

He gave his sperm free of charge to women he met through Facebook, bless him. He wanted to help these total strangers fulfil their dream of being mothers, to bequeath upon them the gift of parenthood, no strings attached. the deal was that if they did not demand money for the child’s upkeep, he would not demand access. easy peasy. an arrangement less complicated than adopting a gerbil or renting a Boris bike.

So all parties signed a contract he ‘got off the internet’ and that was that. For this selfless gift of life, all he wanted were overnight expenses and perhaps the feeling that he had put a little good back into a world that had gone bad for him. and now, somewhere out in the badlands of the Midlands, he has started a little Kenzie dynasty.

HerO? not from where i am sitting. in fact, i’d say he is a complete idiot, and an irresponsible one at that. He might like to convince himself he is only a donor but he is a father ten times over, with ten little people directly related to him growing up in the world. this is something he has publicly admitted to and — i would argue — is morally responsible for, even if his name is not on the birth certificate.

the mothers are little better. in fact, in many respects they are worse.

ladies, if you were in the market for a sperm donor, wouldn’t you try a little bit harder that rushing into an arrangement with the first bloke you came across on the internet?

Kenzie might indeed be a lovely person, but with the best will in the world, an unemployed former carer who suffers from depression is hardly at the top of anyone’s sperm- donor shopping list. Yes, a woman could go to a nightclub, meet a psychopath and become pregnant within hours — and some do — but can’t they at least try for the best start in life for their baby? this is all so casually callous and selfish. little thought is given to the future welfare of the child or the consequences of these actions.

all that matters is the instant gratification of their own desires and a kiddie at all costs — a stance that many will find ethically reprehensible.

For these are babies we are talking about; children, little people, human beings. not a commodity to be ordered online, like a new sofa or a book from amazon. actually, you would have to take more care selecting a sofa. Will it be comfortable, would it fit into your home, will everyone be happy with it? instead, we have wham, bam, thank you, strange man.

One can see why women leapt at this offer. the fertility industry has become commercialised with would-be mothers having to pay thousands of pounds to obtain sperm through official clinics. Yet regulated sperm banks offer protection for all involved. they ensure that donors and mothers don’t have criminal convictions or health problems, for a start. Or that no donors are fathering too many children, with all the genetic problems that could bring further down the line.

SurelY if you are not conscientious enough to t ake t hese basic precautions before having a baby with a complete stranger, you’re not responsible enough to be a parent. and if you can’t afford the fees, then how can you afford a baby? Worst of all in this sad scenario is that once more, the role of the father in the family unit has been marginalised and diminished. Difficulties in his own upbringing means Kenzie Kilpatrick does not believe a father is a necessary ingredient in a happy family. His own dad walked out when he was five, leaving his mother to bring him up on her own. ‘My mum has been fab. Women just do a better job — they’ve got it in their blood,’ he said.

Good for her — but how utterly selfish of Kenzie Kilpatrick.

not all women are good like his mother, not all men are bad like his father.

Yet just because he has no father of his own to speak of, he has condemned another ten children to the same fate.

they will grow up never knowing their father or their siblings — and the chances are they will endure much anger and sadness at being denied this family dimension and feel a vacuum at the centre of their lives.

You don’t have to have watched the heartwrenching episodes of itV’s long lost Family every week to know about the pain of the search for identity and the crack in the soul that comes from not knowing where you come from and who made you.

no one has thought this through — do you know why? Because they are thinking only about themselves.