'Elite' sperm donor is training more men to follow in his footsteps

A donor-conceived man with at least 30 siblings is now a sperm donor himself and is training other men to become donors as well.

Key Takeaways:

• Daniel Bayen, known as "Donor Dan," was raised by a single mother and conceived by a sperm donor.

• He is now a sperm donor himself, which he promotes on social media.

• He said he has 30 known siblings.

• Bayen wants to have children all over the world, and he claims his girlfriend supports his actions.

• He has created a so-called non-profit organization to train other men on how to be profitable sperm donors.

The Details:

Known as "Donor Dan" on social media, Bayen said he was raised by a single mother and that he is "proud" to have "around 30 happy, healthy, and smart half-siblings" from his sperm donor father.

Bayen says he became a sperm "donor" himself as a way to "continue this legacy." Yet unlike most men, he is an open donor and has repeatedly spoken to the media about his life as a donor.

He reportedly makes as much as $30,000 per 'donation,' according to the Daily Mail, and has created a non-profit organization to train other men on how to become profitable sperm donors. In a previous interview with The Times, he said charging such high amounts for 'donations' is necessary.

He warns women about the men who give their sperm away for free or low cost, saying, “They will want to have sex with the recipient in return, or they don’t take care of their health, or they just want as many children as possible."

Bayen boasts of his supposedly superior credentials, including a high IQ and "sperm tested 8x stronger than average."

While he said he is not interested in parenting his children, he said he will be available for "support and guidance" as they grow up, and reportedly keeps a registry of the children he has fathered. While he has German, American, and Canadian citizenships, he spends most of his time in Florida with his girlfriend, who is reportedly supportive of his habit.

Bayen said:

"We want to have children soon and she's happy they will get to have half-siblings all over the world. You could compare it to having cousins. I have 21 half-siblings myself and one full brother and I have the same relationship with my half siblings as I have with my cousins.

When we first met, my girlfriend was worried I would be too involved or the mothers would be too interested in involving me, but she has seen that the mothers really just want their own families. She's been to meetings with recipients – I normally meet the mothers before I agree to the donation process - so it's cool.

Before I met her, I thought that being with a donor was a no-go for most women in the dating market. But there is a large majority of women who think it shows that – as other women want to work with him he might be a healthy father for my children as well."

Zoom In:

Bayen has created the Open Donor Association, through which he trains men to become "elite" sperm donors like him and pairs would-be parents with such donors. He charges incredibly high prices for his services, including $5,000 a month for his Life Donor Program.

A woman seeking a donor must pay as much as $10,000 for such so-called "elite" donors.

A fertility industry insider criticized this in a statement to the Daily Mail:

"He's taking advantage of vulnerable young men that probably don't have much experience with the opposite sex.

He's saying, 'Take my course and you can fly around the world meeting women and making loads of money just like me. And he claims you can make $20,000 for one donation, but that's not realistic."

Bayen says the most eligible men on his site can make a six-figure salary selling their sperm, and claims that over 800 sperm-seeking women have already signed up.

Why It Matters:

While Bayen has painted a rosy picture of sperm donation as a harmless practice that builds families, the reality is quite different, particularly because of donors like him. The notion of his children having potentially hundreds of siblings seemingly does not bother him, even though this is a serious issue in the fertility industry.

In Australia, there have been multiple scandals involving donors who have fathered hundreds, if not thousands of children. A Netflix documentary, "Our Father," exposed how numerous people were fathered by one fertility doctor, who injected his own sperm into patients. At least two of the siblings did not know they were related, dated each other, and became intimate before realizing they were siblings. This doctor's actions are not an anomaly; over 30 fertility doctors in the United States alone have used their own sperm to impregnate patients without the women's knowledge.

There have been so many problems with the unchecked fertility industry that multiple countries in the European Union have begun calling for stricter limits on sperm donation.

The Bottom Line:

While Bayen acts as though he is happy to have been conceived using a sperm donor, statistics show that learning you are created via a donor and artificial technologies has a lasting negative emotional impact. A Harvard Medical School study found that 62% of donor-conceived children believe donor conception is unethical and immoral.

“I am a human being, yet I was conceived with a technique that had its origins in animal husbandry,” one donor-conceived person wrote in a book for Anonymous Us. “Worst of all, farmers kept better records of their cattle’s genealogy than assisted reproductive clinics … how could the doctors, sworn to ‘first do no harm’ create a system where I now face the pain and loss of my own identity and heritage?”