In Self magazine, Jennifer Wolf reports that sperm banks, and industry with little oversight, may be hiding evidence of donors’ genetic defects. Wolf describes families dealing with serious genetic diseases in children who were conceived through the use of anonymous sperm donors – even though parents of children conceived with sperm from the same donor had reported similar diseases to the sperm banks.
Judges’ Comments: Sperm donorship has become so commonplace in contemporary medicine that it was startling to read the discoveries in Jennifer Wolff’s meticulously reported and compellingly written article. She found that not only do many sperm banks simply take a donor’s word that he has no serious genetic or other health problems, but the banks often ignore reports from distraught parents whose children develop significant medical complications as a result of these undisclosed risks. Ms. Wolff’s report, which revealed a significant public medical problem and forced some of the offending sperm banks to change their procedures, is an example health care journalism at its best.