The "Grey Market"

The Grey Market is made up of (unauthorized) sperm banks or private persons offering their services at a lower or non-existent level of screening, with the risk of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and possible legal complications. The Grey Market appears mainly by decreasing domestic supply. This is particular the case in countries where anonymous donors are banned (i.e. Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Norway, UK, Finland and Australia). Other important reasons to diminish the supply is insufficient compensation, taxation of the compensation, very extensive screening programs that will exclude a high percentage of donor candidates, restrictions that the donor must be proven fathers before commencing a donor, a low limitation of numbers of pregnancies or offspring per donor. Restrictions are normally made in order to protect the child's interest or in order to meet other ethical or political goals. However, it seems that it is very complicated to attract semen donors even without restrictions, so any kind of restrictions will reduce the supply of donor semen. This is a true dilemma - but most often not taken care of by the responsible politicians.