Heterologous insemination: with sperm donation to the desired child?

Artificial insemination with the sperm of a strange man is called heterologous or donogenic insemination by medical professionals. At least five hundred children are currently born in Germany every year after donor sperm treatment.

Reasons for heterologous insemination

• Couples often choose this route when the man has problems with the fertility of his sperm. For example, sperm can be too immobile to induce fertilization in the woman.
• If couples were then unable to conceive a child with the help of another form of treatment ( insemination or in vitro fertilization ), insemination with foreign sperm can definitely be an alternative.
• If a hereditary disease on the part of the man makes it impossible for a man to have his own child or involves a certain risk, a sperm donation can be a way of fulfilling his desire to have children.
• For lesbian couples, too, fertilization with someone else’s sperm can be the way to fulfilling their desire to have children. However, as described below, this is not easy in Germany.

Process of a heterologous insemination

• If a couple is considering insemination with someone else’s sperm, you should first be sure that your treating doctor is a competent contact point. If the doctor himself does not have the appropriate skills and experience, he will refer the couple to other specialists in this field.
• As a first step, the attending gynecologist then conducts a detailed consultation about the process and its psychological and legal consequences. Some couples also consult with a psychologist on the subject.
• The doctor then acts as an intermediary between the sperm bank and the couple and will usually also perform the insemination using the foreign sperm.
• If the donation is anonymous, it is usually the sperm bank and not the couple whose sperm is used that decides. Often when making a decision about the sperm bank, the appearance and other characteristics of the future father are taken into account. The couple usually has no say in the choice of donor.
• Before donating sperm, each donor is thoroughly examined by the sperm bank to ensure that they are not on long-term medication, have chronic illnesses or hereditary diseases, or are suffering from an acute infection such as HIV or hepatitis. The semen is also examined for infections as part of a semen sample and six months after the spam donation.
• The further procedure corresponds to that of homologous insemination. You can read everything else about the process in our detailed article on “ insemination ”.

The fatherhood

Legally, the child is considered to be the child of the mother’s husband or partner if he has recognized the partnership. However, the child can contest this within a period of two years after turning 18 or after learning of their parentage.

The anonymity of the donor

At no time does the donor find out who received the sperm he had donated and what children he may have fathered with it. On the other hand, the anonymity of the donor is unfortunately not guaranteed. Because according to current case law, children have the right to know who their biological parents are. This also applies if the child was conceived by sperm donation and is independent of whether it was recognized as a child by another man. If the child wants to meet its biological father at some point, this must be made possible. This is made easier by the significantly longer retention periods for medical documents. While these used to only have to be kept for ten years, they can no longer be disposed of at any point in time. This is to ensure that a child can still find its biological father even after many years. Since a child conceived through sperm donation remains the natural child of the donor, donors can, at least in theory, be confronted with inheritance or maintenance claims from the child. Unfortunately, these aspects are not clearly clarified according to the current legal regulations.

Donation to single or gay women?

According to the guidelines of the German Medical Association, doctors should only use donor sperm to inseminate married women or women with a permanent male partner. Unfortunately, there is no clear legal regulation for this case in Germany. That is why there are also doctors in Germany who carry out fertilization with donor sperm in single women or homosexual women. Single women and lesbian couples also have the option of having treatment carried out abroad, for example in Denmark or the USA. In these countries they are legal and easier to implement.

Egg donation for female infertility

For women who are unable to conceive themselves, there is a medical option to have someone else’s egg implanted , which will be fertilized with the partner’s sperm or another donor’s. However, such egg cell donation is prohibited in Germany by the Embryo Protection Act. This form of treatment is also prohibited in Austria and Switzerland. While it is banned here, other countries such as the USA, France or Spain regard it as harmless.

More on artificial insemination

You can find an overview of the different methods of fertility medicine in our “ Artificial Insemination ” and “ Infertility ” sections.