FDA Regulates Sperm Donor under Commerce Clause

The Virgin Father

Trent hadn’t seen his father in almost a year. For months, he hadn’t responded to his parents’ calls and letters, and at first they hadn’t known why. They hadn’t known that in 2006, Trent hung out a shingle on the Internet and became a do-it-yourself sperm donor, giving his semen away to whoever asked. He was part of a growing movement of peer-to-peer sperm donation that bypassed regulated banks, and in some cases dropped the customary anonymity, but Trent went further, offering unusual transparency by posting records on his website, including STD-test results, his driver’s license, family photos, and a link to his Facebook page. The FDA, having learned what Trent was up to—he suspected a local sperm bank had tipped off the agency—launched an investigation, eventually filing a “cease manufacture” order. Trent had become consumed with the FDA action and avoided informing his parents. “I became unreachable to my family for a while,” he says.

Does it seems weird that the FDA could issue an order to stoop manufacturing sperm?

So the FDA doesn't interfere in any sperm donations except this one?  On what basis? Either sperm donation is a legal process or its not.  I don't see how they can discriminate based on the number of children fathered.  Or are they anticipating enforcing the Chinese "one child" rule? What about women's right to choose the father of their children?  They don't seem to care, and in fact, they seem to prefer that he is a proven producer.

The requests for Trent’s own sperm have only increased. Just in the last few weeks, he has received about a hundred new requests from women across America. He has, by now, made more than 500 “donations,” been responsible for fourteen successful pregnancies (and fifteen births—one mother had twins), has three more pregnancies under way, and is adding an average of three new prospective mothers to his portfolio each month. Paradoxically, the more children Trent fathers, the more his services are in demand—last month, he signed up seven aspiring mothers. “I’d think this would be a turnoff,” he says, “but that’s not how people think. It’s maybe even an attractive trait. If you look at lions, it’s like the females know to look at the ones that have demonstrated fertility.”

 It seems to me that the FDA has the right to regulate food and drugs , interpreted expansively to include biological medical treatments such as transfusions (blood is neither a food or drug, strictly speaking), but if they want a role in regulating sperm donations between private parties, they need to determine a system to prevent inequal applications of their regulations.

Article (and more discussion) found at Althouse.