America's "Super Dad" has 129 children

America's "Super Dad" has 129 children World News Network 20 years ago, Todd Whitehurst was still poor...

America's "Super Dad" has 129 children World News Network 20 years ago, Todd Whitehurst When Whitehurst was a poor college student, he didn't think much about the consequences of sperm donation, and he never expected that he would become the father of many children. The New York Post reported that when he was 41 years old, a 14-year-old girl named Virginia wrote him an email claiming to be his daughter. Soon, he found his sons Tyler, now 14, and Gavin, now 16, and they appeared one after another. Whitehurst is now 45 years old and works as a medical engineer. "It was absolutely unexpected," he said. "I didn't even know how many children I had." So far, he has found nine children who were the seeds he sowed. Biogeneticists say that statistically speaking, Whitehurst could have had between 42 and 60 children. Because of the lack of supervision, sperm donors can have many children, especially college students who frequently donate, as Whitehurst did. In the 1980s and 1990s, he donated sperm once a week at the Stanford University campus clinic for about three years, receiving $50 each time. A website set up for the children of sperm donors has found a group of "super dads" who have dozens of children, and some have more than a hundred children. Wendy, the founder of the non-profit organization "Donor Sibling Registry". Wendy Kramer said data shows Virginia's top sperm donor has an astonishing 129 children and is still being counted. Another sperm donor in Boston was also traced to having 72 children. Kramer accepted a sperm donation and gave birth to a son. She founded this online organization after her son asked who his biological father was. Cramer said that 92 groups of ten or more sperm-donated children from the same father have been identified, and 336 groups of nine or less. She said there is no limit to how many sperm banks a sperm donor can sell to. About 21% of sperm donors have been sold to more than one family. Albert Anouna, director of biogenetics at the Sperm Bank of New York, said that in theory, after ten children are born from one donor's sperm, the sperm bank should eliminate his sperm. But birth numbers are self-reported by pregnant women, so it's an incomplete and inconsistent approach. Sperm donors need to be screened to select those with high fertility, high sperm count and sufficient motility to make it easier for women to conceive, Anlona said. They are also most chosen by women, compounding the problem.