FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. Donor Conceived Council Statement in Response to “A Sperm Donor Chases a Role in the Lives of the 96 Children He Fathered,” The Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2023
August 28, 2023 — The stories of donor conceived people, recipient parents, and donors are often dramatic because the gamete donation industry is almost entirely unregulated in the United States. U.S. Donor Conceived Council regrets that donor Dylan Stone-Miller’s story, as recounted in a recent Wall Street Journal article, did not highlight this lack of oversight or Stone-Miller’s efforts to advocate for better industry practices.
Like many sperm donors, Stone-Miller was misled about the total amount of children that would be created from his donations. Xytex’s policies place Stone-Miller in the unenviable position of needing a spreadsheet to track his 96 known biological children, to travel internationally to meet those whose parents reach out, and to build relationships with those who want contact without the benefit of meaningful guidance and support.
Stone-Miller’s experience is an example of how this unchecked industry takes advantage of gamete donors and intended parents who require assistance from a third party to have a child. In the absence of deeper context regarding how and why Stone-Miller came to have 96 children and the uncharted territory he and his recipients face in building relationships, his story is now open to misinterpretation and misunderstanding.
U.S. Donor Conceived Council applauds Stone-Miller’s dedication to connecting with his offspring and his efforts to educate other donors, and the general public, about the realities of unregulated commercial gamete donation.
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