FDA Warns Man to Stop Donating Sperm

You know you have problems when the federal government is on your tail – your sperm tail that is.

A California man received a stern warning from the Food and Drug Administration – Stop donating your sperm over the Internet or you’ll end up in jail.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports, 36-year-old Trent Arsenault, an engineer at Hewlett Packard, has been offering his sperm online in personal ads and on a personal website for the last five years. Surprisingly enough, women have taken him up on that offer. He has since fathered 14 children and has more on the way.

You might be asking yourself – why does the Food and Drug Administration care about what he does with his sperm?

The agency, which has been following Arsenault for a year, said the donor’s sperm does not comply with federal regulations because it has not been tested for communicable diseases.

The FDA sent him an order to cease manufacturing in Nov. 2010 for distributing 328 sperm donations to 46 women. If Arsenault does not comply he could face a fine up to $100,000 and a year in prison.

The Maryland-based agency allows men to offer up their sperm to women by means of sperm banks.

Arsenault refuses to use the banks because he said the banks shouldn’t charge women or couples for the sperm. He also doesn’t like that the donations are anonymous because he would someday like to have a relationship with his children.

He is challenging the order on the grounds that the FDA can’t regulate an individual giving sperm to someone he has a personal relationship with.  He is allowed to continue providing sperm while the case is still pending.

In the meantime, he has impregnated three women in the last month.