Sperm donor has 70 kids, and counting
~
Who’s your daddy?
As kids conceived with donated sperm grow up, life may get complicated for donors
One day last spring Boston attorney Ben Seisler, 33, told his friend Vas Leckas he wanted to see him. He said had an important personal secret he needed to share.
Leckas’s first thought was it had something to do with Seisler’s upcoming wedding. His second thought (“I have an active imagination,’’ he says.) was that Seisler, whose parents live in Belgium, had inherited a valuable Flemish master painting. “I would have suggested he auction it off, with my assistance,’’ said Leckas, 32, a software salesman. “With a hefty art handler fee for me.’’
His fantasies could not have been more off base. When they met, Seisler confided that he’d been a sperm donor for three years while in law school, and recently learned he was the biological father of a “little dude,’’ who wanted to meet him. Also, he confessed, a little girl.
And one more thing, Seisler said. They have, “like, 70 or so siblings.’’
Since that conversation Seisler has learned about even more children conceived with his sperm, and he is pretty sure that number will go up. He is registered on an online registry called the Donor Sibling Registry that matches children conceived by sperm donors with their biological fathers and half-siblings. Based on his calculations, “I have reason to expect between 120 and 140,’’ said Seisler. He recently met two of them - a 7-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother, who bore what Seisler calls “a bizarre resemblance’’ to him - as part of a reality documentary special, “Style Exposed: Sperm Donor,’’ which airs Sept. 27 on the Style network.
His experience puts a new spin on the definition of extended family, and makes for entertaining TV. “I don’t want to sound cold and calculating,’’ Leckas told Seisler after hearing the news, “but you can’t be at 70 birthday parties a year. There’s only so much Chuck E. Cheese you can take.’’
MUCH MORE HERE
Who’s your daddy?
As kids conceived with donated sperm grow up, life may get complicated for donors
One day last spring Boston attorney Ben Seisler, 33, told his friend Vas Leckas he wanted to see him. He said had an important personal secret he needed to share.
Leckas’s first thought was it had something to do with Seisler’s upcoming wedding. His second thought (“I have an active imagination,’’ he says.) was that Seisler, whose parents live in Belgium, had inherited a valuable Flemish master painting. “I would have suggested he auction it off, with my assistance,’’ said Leckas, 32, a software salesman. “With a hefty art handler fee for me.’’
His fantasies could not have been more off base. When they met, Seisler confided that he’d been a sperm donor for three years while in law school, and recently learned he was the biological father of a “little dude,’’ who wanted to meet him. Also, he confessed, a little girl.
And one more thing, Seisler said. They have, “like, 70 or so siblings.’’
Since that conversation Seisler has learned about even more children conceived with his sperm, and he is pretty sure that number will go up. He is registered on an online registry called the Donor Sibling Registry that matches children conceived by sperm donors with their biological fathers and half-siblings. Based on his calculations, “I have reason to expect between 120 and 140,’’ said Seisler. He recently met two of them - a 7-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother, who bore what Seisler calls “a bizarre resemblance’’ to him - as part of a reality documentary special, “Style Exposed: Sperm Donor,’’ which airs Sept. 27 on the Style network.
His experience puts a new spin on the definition of extended family, and makes for entertaining TV. “I don’t want to sound cold and calculating,’’ Leckas told Seisler after hearing the news, “but you can’t be at 70 birthday parties a year. There’s only so much Chuck E. Cheese you can take.’’
MUCH MORE HERE
Comment