A single mother of one is sharing her story about using a sperm donor and IVF to have a baby at a young age when she couldn’t find a partner, despite the fact that she does not suffer from infertility. Now she has plans to have another using one of her remaining frozen embryos.

The Sun interviewed 29-year-old Keira Parker, who had a baby through IVF in 2021, when she was 25 — with no explanation as to why she opted for IVF (creating multiple embryos in a lab) over IUI (intra-uterine insemination). Parker wants another child, telling The Sun she had grown up with older parents, and therefore wanted to have children while in her twenties.

“I always wanted to get married at a really young age and have a baby,” she said. “I think it’s because, growing up, my mum and dad were always known as the old mum and dad. I hated it, even though my mum was 32 when she had me and 33 when she had my sister, which I know now isn’t really that old at all.” But with no boyfriend, she decided to go the route of using an anonymous sperm donor and harvesting her eggs to create embryos via IVF. “I desperately wanted a relationship but it never happened for me,” she said. “I’d just not met the right person or I’d had really bad experiences.”

“I’ve always been really independent,” she added. “I went to university when I was 20, graduated at 23 as a nurse and then bought my first house at 24. I just thought, ‘I’ve got the house and the career, why am I waiting around?’”

Because she did not have any actual fertility problems, she had to pay for IVF herself, as the NHS would not cover the costs. “The only extra thing I had to buy on top was sperm, which was definitely the weirdest purchase I think I’ve ever made,” she said.

READ: Another baby born to wrong woman in IVF mix-up

After finding a sperm donor, she created multiple embryos, but was able to get pregnant on the first try. Her remaining embryos are now frozen.

Like so many people who use artificial reproductive technology to have children, the focus seems to be entirely on Parker and what she wants; there is little mention of what this means for the babies created. Parker briefly alluded to feeling guilty that she intentionally deprived her child of a father, but justified it by saying she makes enough money to provide for her son on her own. “I’ll never regret the way I brought Noah into the world,” Keira said. “All I ever wanted was to be a mum and have a family.”

Increasingly, the fertility industry has commodified children and turned them into products to be bought and sold, rather than actual human beings with rights of their own. Donor-conceived adults have been speaking out about how being created — and, in many cases, deprived of their biological family, heritage, medical information, and background — has affected them.

A Harvard Medical School study found that over 60% of children conceived through donor technologies believe it to be unethical and immoral, saying they feel like business transactions. One woman told Them Before Us, “Somehow, somewhere, my parents developed the idea that they deserved to have a baby, and it didn’t matter how much it cost, how many times it took, or how many died in the process. They deserved a child. And with an attitude like that, by the time I was born they thought they deserved to have the perfect child… as Dad defined a perfect child. And since they deserved a child, I was their property to be controlled, not a person or a gift to be treasured.”

A single mother of one is sharing her story about using a sperm donor and IVF to have a baby at a young age when she couldn’t find a partner, despite the fact that she does not suffer from infertility. Now she has plans to have another using one of her remaining frozen embryos.

The Sun interviewed 29-year-old Keira Parker, who had a baby through IVF in 2021, when she was 25 — with no explanation as to why she opted for IVF (creating multiple embryos in a lab) over IUI (intra-uterine insemination). Parker wants another child, telling The Sun she had grown up with older parents, and therefore wanted to have children while in her twenties.

“I always wanted to get married at a really young age and have a baby,” she said. “I think it’s because, growing up, my mum and dad were always known as the old mum and dad. I hated it, even though my mum was 32 when she had me and 33 when she had my sister, which I know now isn’t really that old at all.” But with no boyfriend, she decided to go the route of using an anonymous sperm donor and harvesting her eggs to create embryos via IVF. “I desperately wanted a relationship but it never happened for me,” she said. “I’d just not met the right person or I’d had really bad experiences.”

“I’ve always been really independent,” she added. “I went to university when I was 20, graduated at 23 as a nurse and then bought my first house at 24. I just thought, ‘I’ve got the house and the career, why am I waiting around?’”

Because she did not have any actual fertility problems, she had to pay for IVF herself, as the NHS would not cover the costs. “The only extra thing I had to buy on top was sperm, which was definitely the weirdest purchase I think I’ve ever made,” she said.

READ: Another baby born to wrong woman in IVF mix-up

After finding a sperm donor, she created multiple embryos, but was able to get pregnant on the first try. Her remaining embryos are now frozen.

Like so many people who use artificial reproductive technology to have children, the focus seems to be entirely on Parker and what she wants; there is little mention of what this means for the babies created. Parker briefly alluded to feeling guilty that she intentionally deprived her child of a father, but justified it by saying she makes enough money to provide for her son on her own. “I’ll never regret the way I brought Noah into the world,” Keira said. “All I ever wanted was to be a mum and have a family.”

Increasingly, the fertility industry has commodified children and turned them into products to be bought and sold, rather than actual human beings with rights of their own. Donor-conceived adults have been speaking out about how being created — and, in many cases, deprived of their biological family, heritage, medical information, and background — has affected them.

A Harvard Medical School study found that over 60% of children conceived through donor technologies believe it to be unethical and immoral, saying they feel like business transactions. One woman told Them Before Us, “Somehow, somewhere, my parents developed the idea that they deserved to have a baby, and it didn’t matter how much it cost, how many times it took, or how many died in the process. They deserved a child. And with an attitude like that, by the time I was born they thought they deserved to have the perfect child… as Dad defined a perfect child. And since they deserved a child, I was their property to be controlled, not a person or a gift to be treasured.”