American super donor Ari Nagel, known as 'the Sperminator', is close to reaching 100 biological children. The 46-year-old New York-based maths professor operates as a DIY donor, finding recipients through word of mouth or online.
Nagel provides his sperm for free, only asking recipients to cover his travel costs. He says it was an easy decision to give them “a lifetime of joy and happiness with little or no effort on my part”. Donations are sometimes handed over in public restrooms using a menstrual cup.
However, advocates for donor-conceived people criticise such practices. Erin Jackson, who runs the resource site We Are Donor Conceived, says Nagel may be on an “ego trip” and should have stopped long ago. Her annual survey of donor-conceived people shows strong support for limiting donors to ten offspring and allowing children access to the donor's identity from birth.
Nagel admits some of his children do not know he exists, particularly those born to heterosexual couples. He has 97 biological children so far and expects to reach 116 by the end of November. He operates entirely outside regulatory frameworks, unlike fertility clinics in many countries that still allow anonymous donations without legal limits on offspring numbers.
