Sperm donation is the provision (or "donation") by a man (known as a sperm donor) of his sperm (known as donor sperm), principally for it to be used in the artificial insemination of a woman or women who are not his sexual partner.
Sperm may be donated privately and directly to the intended recipient, or through a sperm bank or fertility clinic. Sperm donation enables a man to father a child for third-party women, and is therefore, categorized as a form of third party reproduction. Pregnancies are usually achieved by using donor sperm in assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques which include artificial insemination (either by intracervical insemination (ICI) or intrauterine insemination (IUI) in a clinic, or intravaginal insemination at home). Less commonly, donor sperm may be used in in vitro fertilization (IVF). The primary recipients of donor sperm are single women, lesbian couples and heterosexual couples suffering from male infertility.
Donor sperm and 'fertility treatments' using donor sperm may be obtained at a sperm bank or fertility clinic. Sperm banks or clinics may be subject to state or professional regulations, including restrictions on donor anonymity and the number of offspring that may be produced, and there may be other legal protections of the rights and responsibilities of both recipient and donor. Some sperm banks, either by choice or regulation, limit the amount of information available to potential recipients; a desire to obtain more information on donors is one reason why recipients may choose to use a known donor or private donation. However conception is achieved, the nature and course of the pregnancy will be the same as one achieved by sexual intercourse, and the male donor will be the biological father of any child born from his donations.
