Sperm donors required to take IQ tests in latest form of fertility-based eugenics

A Danish sperm bank is requiring donors to take IQ tests in the latest disturbing example of eugenics within the fertility industry.

Key Takeaways:

• Donor Network, a sperm bank based in Denmark, is requiring men to take an IQ test before the business buys their sperm.

• Anyone with an IQ under 85 will be rejected.

• The test is the latest example of how the fertility industry turns children into products and embraces eugenics.

The Details:

According to Donor Network's website, all prospective donors will be given Cattell's Fluid Intelligence Test, Scale 2, also known as CFT 20-R. Noting that "[t]wo thirds of the population scores within an IQ range of 85-114," anyone who receives a score below 85 will be rejected.

In an interview with Euronews, CEO Jakub Knudsen boasted, "As far as we know, we are the only bank in the world with these requirements."

According to The Sun, Donor Network exports much of its sperm, making this decision a significant one with international repercussions. The clinic frames the IQ test as a positive offering that gives would-be parents access to the best possible product. Buyers will be able to see the scores and choose a "donor" based on those scores.

"Up to 80 per cent of a child’s IQ is inherited genetically. The new screening results are available to British clients alongside each donor’s health history, family background and physical traits," a spokesperson told The Sun, adding, "We've tapped into a clear gap in the market. For anyone undergoing fertility treatment, the choice of donor isn’t a small detail — it’s a crucial decision. Most of our clients are surprised to learn that IQ screening isn’t standard practice at all sperm banks.”

Why It Matters:

The fertility industry treats children as consumer products to be bought and sold, engineered to exact specifications, and discarded if deemed defective. In addition to IQ, Donor Network advises parents to choose a biological father for their child based on a personality test the donor has taken, the donor's education and career, and the donor's physical traits such as eye color, hair color, height, weight, ethnicity, body silhouette, and ancestry, even including baby photos and adult photos of the donors. It is very much like building a baby, but what happens when the baby doesn't live up to expectations? When their traits or IQ aren't what their intended parents ordered?

IVF, along with other assisted reproductive technologies, commodifies children with eugenics-based screening practices to ensure only the "best" children are created and then born. Human embryos have been turned into jewelry,  fought over, and abandoned in divorce/custody agreements, and even traded among would-be parents so adults can ensure they receive the exact product they want.

Is picking the 'best' embryo a mere parenting tool, or eugenics fueled by hubris?

Numerous fertility start-ups already promise to allow parents to test for hundreds of traits, ensuring the people created are made under exact specifications — like ordering a car from a factory.

Meanwhile, the marketplace for sperm has become increasingly controversial, as ethical abuses continue to come to light. There have been multiple scandals in Australia, with donor-conceived adults learning they have hundreds, if not thousands, of siblings.

The Netflix documentary, "Our Father," revealed a shocking story involving numerous people fathered by a fertility doctor, two of whom had dated and become intimate, not knowing they were related. And it's not an anomaly; over 30 fertility doctors in the United States alone have been caught or accused of using their own sperm to impregnate patients.

Because of these issues, multiple countries in the European Union have begun calling for stricter limits on sperm donation.

The Bottom Line:

Children are not expensive cars or high-end purses to be designed and manufactured upon demand. And yet, this kind of dehumanization is exactly what is happening in the fertility industry, which seemingly has no end to how low it will sink in its profit-driven, never-ending commodification of children.