Improving Population Quality
Beyond the treatment of infertility, donor sperm is also made available to couples if the male partner is considered to suffer from a genetic disease and is deemed “not suitable for reproduction” because of a risk that the disease will be transmitted to offspring, thereby negatively affecting the quality of China’s newborn population. There are far fewer cases of donor sperm being used in this way than to address infertility. Chapter 2 shows how artificial insemination by donor both purports to contribute to the improvement of national population quality while, at the same time, introducing a potential threat to this quality in the form of possible unwitting consanguineous marriage of donor siblings. Sperm banking in China is inextricably bound to national family planning objectives to improve the quality of newborns.