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Baby Boom: What Happens When One Sperm Donor Has Dozens Of Offspring

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Three mothers and their kids - from left, Dawn Warthen and her daughter Allyson Cross, Michelle Jorgenson and her daughter Cheyenne, and Jenafer Elin and her son Joshua - during a reunion in 2006. The kids are half-siblings and all have the same sperm donor: number 3066. (AP)
Three mothers and their kids - from left, Dawn Warthen and her daughter Allyson Cross, Michelle Jorgenson and her daughter Cheyenne, and Jenafer Elin and her son Joshua - during a reunion in 2006. The kids are half-siblings and all have the same sperm donor: number 3066. (AP)

The business of making babies has been in the news a lot recently. A 33 year-old lawyer from Boston discovered he has spawned more than 70 kids after donating to a sperm bank during his three years of law school.

Some of his offspring tracked him down through a website that allows children to find their biological parents. Some of those children have voiced concern that they could unknowingly have relations with their brother or sister. So how does the reproductive industry work? Who monitors it? And is anyone keeping track?

Guest:

  • Rene Almeling, Yale University assistant professor of sociology and author of "Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm

This segment aired on September 29, 2011.

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