Sperm bank row over red-headed donors
The Danish branch of the world’s largest network of sperm banks may not want donations from red-haired men, but the New York branch certainly does.
Cryos Sperm Bank International’s Danish branch says there is little demand for sperm from redheads, while on America’s east coast the company is more welcoming.
“We want diversity. I want redheads, I want Asians, Hispanics, African Americans, Caucasians,” Ty Kaliski, director of operations for Cryos International New York, told CTVNews.ca.
Mr Kaliski said there was a shortage of red-haired donors. “We only have two redheads that have successfully made it into the programme. That’s not a result of us weeding out redheads. That’s a result of redheads not necessarily applying. The redheads we have, they move. Product is not flying off the shelf, but people are buying them.”
Commenting on the Danish branch’s rejection of redheads, he said: “They might have a ton of redheads that don’t sell at all. When you’re dealing with a country that’s not necessarily a melting pot, the psychology might be a little bit different.”
I do not think you choose a redhead. Ole Schou, Cryos Denmark
Ole Schou, director of the Danish branch, said there had been too many donations from red-haired men, whose sperm was not popular.
He told the Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet: “There are too many redheads in relation to demand. I do not think you choose a redhead, unless the partner – for example, the sterile male – has red hair, or because the lone woman has a preference for redheads. And that’s perhaps not so many, especially in the latter case.” The exception was Ireland, where sperm from redheads sold “like hot cakes”.
Cryos’ Danish branch is not short of sperm: it has now reached its capacity of 70 litres of semen. Mr Schou said sperm from men with dark hair and dark eyes was most popular because of the number of customers from Spain, Italy and Greece.