Online ads for sperm donors called offensive

An ambitious web campaign to recruit sperm donors has provoked a row over how far to go to address Britain's chronic shortage of stocks. Parents and potential parents say it is offensive and that it risks perpetuating the tacky stereotype of donors they have fought to dispel.



The Give a Toss web adverts use images of young women in We Want Your Sperm T shirts, winking at the camera, a virtual "toss-o-meter" game which encourages would-be donors to practice and improve their wrist action, and a spoof news flash about a national sperm day. Aimed at men aged 18-35, it was set up by a government-funded charity, the National Gamete Donation Trust, to recruit donors.



Critics of the campaign, launched last week, have accused the charity of alienating donor parents, would-be parents and donor-conceived children by perpetuating a "tacky" image.