Not knowing much about sperm donation, my guess is, the livelihood of the
sperm is so limited, it requires onsite donations (supervised, and under
controlled conditions). If you thought about it, semen would actually be "an
adulteration" of the sample, because semen is a "filler" and what the donors
want is sperm. A large quantity of donation would probably be a hassle,
because so much would have to be filtered out to get the useful portion of
the donation. It wouldn't do any good to add anything to the sample,
"donations" are priced per donation, not per quantity of donation.

Blood donations are similar, collected in specific collection agencies
(blood banks, blood drives, hospitals) and are supervised by trained
professionals. There is no greater renumeration for a larger donation, in
fact, if the donation goes over the specified weight, the donation is no
good. It's thrown away.

If human milk was purchased by quantity, it is very possible that someone
could add to the donation to increase the profit for herself. It would
probably be pretty obvious if someone added half again in water to what her
milk donation was, but maybe not so obvious if it was "just" 5ml water to a
45 ml donation. At one time, 5ml wouldn't make much difference in payment,
but after 2000ml, it could add up. (I worked with a nurse who continually
padded her mileage reports, a few miles at a time - by the end of the year,
she had more than $2K income more than the rest of us!)

Many times, without a pricetag, the offering is seen as unimportant or less
than worthy. If we put a price on the milk "donated," it would add clout to
our argument that breastfeeding is important. However, it could also be used
as an excuse to drive up the cost of human milk, which would additionally
pad the pockets of the sellers.

What is the answer?

Best wishes,
Sam Doak


<<Semen is no different than any other body fluid.  Semen can be
contaminated by disease vectors and adulterated by adding other substances
to it.  So, I fail to comprehend how semen is different from breastmilk or
blood.  I can see no good reason why anyone would want to adulterate their
milk or semen -- so I simply do not understand the adulteration argument.
Egg donors and surrogate mothers get compensation.  That seems to be a
better model for the physiology and issues involved in the pay or not pay
discussion. 

Sincerely Susan Burger 
>>

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