Sperm Donation

Couples may decide to use a sperm donor or they may seek new scientific treatments. Provided those treatments are successful, the parties may never need to use donor sperm. In fact, the stigma surrounding artificial insemination and other methods used to circumvent male factor infertility have essentially been eradicated. Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is now widely accepted. Alabama law statutorily addressed IUIs and parentage declaring that if a woman is married and undergoes intrauterine insemination, the woman’s spouse is the legal parent of the child.

​

Representation is more complicated when a person is a single parent or when there is an unmarried couple. Parties may decide to use a donor sperm from either someone they know (directed donation) or from an anonymous donor. Anonymous sperm donors at sperm banks contain less of a risk simply because their identity is not disclosed to the recipient. The UPA and the Model Act all provide that if a donor provides sperm to someone other than his spouse, he is a donor and not a “legal parent.”

​

In the absolute worst case scenario, if a man offers to be a donor for an unmarried woman, because of the laws regarding paternity and child support, there is nothing stopping the donor from asserting parental rights despite his pre-conception intentions; likewise there is nothing stopping a mother from seeking financial assistance for the child despite her pre-conception intentions. This is why contracts are so important in this area of law. 

​​