Thursday, October 14, 2010

Guilty verdict in sperm matchmaker case

It was a rather interesting case of the two men from the UK who were operating a rather specialized online matchmaking service. They paired up women and sperm donors. And it seems their operation was quite successful with the website generating over 250,000 pounds in about one year.

But the authorities claimed they were violating the law because they need a license to provide donor sperm. They argued that they were doing nothing more than providing a matchmaking service so their business was not subject to the regulations. A judge found otherwise and they were found guilty and ordered to pay a fine, do community service, but suspended the jail sentence.

The details of what actually happened seem a little fuzzy in the published reports. Perhaps they did cross the line and were acting as brokers for donor sperm rather than just putting women and donors together to work out the details themselves. But it sort of sounds like even the latter is not allowed under the law which requires that testing for diseases and verification that warning information has been received and understood. So what type of matchmaking site is next to take this kind of hit? Will dating sites be held liable for testing the health of their members?

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