The need and desire for sperm banks are on the rise as infertility is ever-increasing and only becoming a growing issue.
Women are turning to sperm banks for various reasons. For some women, their spouse may not be able to impregnate his wife. Or for some, when a woman is a lesbian then obviously there is no natural way of conceiving a child. Either way, the need for sperm banks is growing and now a new type of sperm bank has opened and they specialize in one type of donation...HIV positive donors.
That's right, this particular bank only accepts donations from people who are HIV positive. This sounds like a disaster and a lawsuit waiting to happen.
According to DW.com,
“An HIV-positive sperm bank is perfectly safe,” infectious diseases physician and Auckland University professor Mark Thomas said in a statement supporting the launch of the sperm bank, which was named Sperm Positive.
“When a person is consistently taking effective treatment for their HIV infection, the amount of the HIV virus in their blood and sexual fluids is almost always reduced to an undetectable amount,” he added.
The sperm bank says that the amount of HIV in the sperm samples are so small that they are called "undetectable" and therefore don't pose any real risk of contracting the virus. This supposedly means that an "undetectable" amount of the virus cannot be passed on through unprotected sex or childbirth even.
Finding donors is proving to be a challenge though as there have only been 3 donors. One of them was diagnosed in 1999 and has had an "undetectable" amount since he began treatment 20 years ago.
He said, "I have many friends who are also living with HIV who’ve gone on to have children. Being able to help others on their journey is so rewarding, but I also want to show the world that life doesn’t stop post-diagnosis and help to remove the stigma.”
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