Over 150 people in Japan have purchased sperm from the world's largest sperm bank, Cryos International, since it began offering services in Tokyo in February last year, the company said.
About 70% of the purchasers were undergoing fertility treatment at the company's affiliated medical institutions in Japan using the donated sperm.
In the current Diet session, lawmakers are discussing a bill to clarify the parent-child relationship of any child born through the use of sperm or eggs from a third party. With one aspect of sperm sales trends having been revealed, greater calls are expected for rules establishing how sperm may be used, including whether it should be bought and sold.
Cryos International was founded in Denmark in 1987. Its business received approval in the United States, and the company currently sells sperm to medical institutions and individuals in about 100 countries. The company says it has about 1,000 sperm donors, mainly Westerners. About 30% of the purchasers, spread across 30 prefectures in Japan, are couples in which the husband is infertile, and the rest are single women or female couples.
The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology has established its own rules for treatment with donated sperm, allowing sales only to married couples and prohibiting sales for commercial purposes.
In Japan, Keio University Hospital, which had been a leading player in infertility treatment using sperm donated by third parties, stopped accepting new patients in 2018 because it was difficult to secure sperm donors.
"A system must be created that would ensure safety by, for example, requiring sperm banks to be licensed," said Okayama University Prof. Mikiya Nakatsuka, who specializes in reproductive medicine.
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