Dutch Alert on 'sperm for Sale'

Dutch authorities are investigating a private company which has unveiled plans to deliver "fresh" sperm to prospective parents.

John Michaels, 35, a Dutch-Australian entrepreneur, is planning to launch Baby Donors International next month and his website - babydonors.com - is already taking orders.

For a starting price of €2,500 (£1,600), Mr Michaels says his firm will enable customers to obtain fresh and frozen sperm as well as female eggs from the company's "catalogue".

He boasts of being able to deliver to clients in Amsterdam "within the hour." He is also offering "home insemination kits". Mr Michaels strongly denies that he is marketing human sperm and eggs - a practice that is illegal in the Netherlands - and insists he is simply acting as a broker.

"It's an alternative to women going to a bar and picking up a guy, putting an ad in the paper or asking a friend," he said.

But Dutch authorities are sceptical about the venture. The healthcare inspectorate has started an investigation and said yesterday it was concerned about the firm's activities. "We are telling people to go to regular places and not to buy from these kind of companies where you don't know what you are getting," said a spokeswoman.

Medical professionals in the Netherlands have accused Mr Michaels of profiteering from the misery of childless women. Kees de Bruin, head of Leiden University Medical Centre's sperm bank, has claimed that fresh sperm obtained through the new firm could be infertile.

Josephine Quintavalle of UK-based public interest group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said there were other risks.

"There is no way you can guarantee your sperm or eggs are free from disease if they are not tested and retested over a period of time," she said.

But Mr Michaels says he is keen to hear from UK donors and set up franchise operations in Britain, France, Italy, Australia and Japan.