38-year-old woman undergoing in vitro fertilization at a reproductive center in Alberta, Canada, was told she could use sperm only from donors who share her race.The lab’s decision is part of a policy that has been in place for decades and has recently prompted backlash online.
The Regional Fertility Program in the city of Calgary says it does not permit patients to use sperm or egg donors from any race other than their partner’s or their own. Dr. Calvin Greene, administrative director at the clinic, told The Calgary Herald that the policy has been around since the 1980s and was created with the belief that “a child of an ethnic background should have the ability to be able to identify with their ethnic roots.”
