@hawkeye10,
This Columbus sperm bank seems to have a considerably more detailed system of preventing mix-ups. In fact, it really shows up the deficiencies that helped to bring about the mix-up at the other sperm bank.
Quote:Columbus Sperm Bank Taking Precautions To Avoid Donor Mix-Ups
An Ohio couple is suing after a mix-up at a Chicago area sperm bank. The same-sex couple says they wanted a Caucasian donor with blue eyes. Instead, Jennifer Cramblett delivered a beautiful bi-racial baby girl.
In Columbus, Sperm samples are preserved inside metal tanks filled with liquid nitrogen at the Cryobiology Sperm Bank. “Each donor has their own canister,” says Donna Ridder of Cryobiology.
Cryobiology is the only sperm bank in Columbus and the only one in Ohio that processes anonymous and directed donor’s sperm. It also stores about 10,000 samples.
Each sample is placed in a color-coded tube to identify the race of the donor: green for African American donors, blue for Asian donors and red for Middle Eastern donors.
“For our Middle- Eastern donors, we use a designation and they start with a number one,” Ridder explains.
Each race is assigned a specific number code. Ridder says Caucasian donors have a totally different numbering scheme from ethnic donors.
Once the samples are tested, they’re placed in a canister, and then placed in a second protective canister where they’re shipped to the doctor’s office.
The lab says it’s a pioneer when it comes to tracking sperm samples. “We were the first lab in the country to put the ethnicity of the donor on the vials,” says Ridder.
So how did this Chicago area sperm bank send the wrong sample?
The director of Cryobiology thinks the problem may rest with that lab’s numbering system. For example, the Ohio couple wanted donor 380, which contained Caucasian sperm, but instead received donor 330, which had African American sperm. Because two ethic samples shared the same number, that may explain how the mix-up happened.
“(With) the system we have, the numbers are totally different,” she says.
While the mistake didn’t happen at Cryobiology, Ridder believes the integrity of sperm banks across the country will be called into question. “That will affect all of us; the black eye of the industry if you will.”
Sperm banks are inspected by the FDA. It’s estimated between 15,000 and 20,000 children are born in the United States each year as the result of artificial insemination.
http://ohianews.com/columbus-sperm-bank-taking-precautions-to-avoid-donor-mix-ups/
Sometimes lawsuits are the only way to get improvements in procedures, and I've already said I think a good outcome of this suit would be to get better regulations in place to help avoid the possibility of such mix-ups. I think it's good they brought this suit.
Settlements can help with expenses connected with consequences of the sperm errors--therapy, re-location, etc.--they really can't ameliorate the problem resulting from the sperm mix-up.
And courts can't start ruling that, in general, children of one racial group are worth more than children of another, and if a sperm bank provides you with the wrong group that you have been injured because the child is less desirable or valuable.
But since sperm banks exist in order to provide people with children who might resemble them, racially or ethnically, satisfying that profound emotional desire is one reason for their existence, and it's hard to see where emotional injury doesn't result when the resulting biological child doesn't resemble the parents, or anyone else in the family. It's a sad and often tragic situation, but one with no good legal recourse that's likely to be successful in terms of any compensation.
Most people probably never think about sperm banks at all. And these sorts of errors appear rare. But I do think the families coping with these sperm mix-up situations are entitled to some compensation to help them cope and adapt--that's different than compensating them for the devastation of the mix-up itself. It was the sperm bank's negligence that created the situation, and they should bear some responsibility for it, and how it has impacted lives. I think this couple might get their re-location money on that basis, but we'll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, I think this couple has done a service by bringing this lawsuit and going public about it. Other people thinking of using sperm banks need to be aware of these things, and what precautions are in place to prevent errors.
