LONDON — For American parents looking for donor sperm to produce blond, blue-eyed Scandinavian babies, the search just got a little trickier. A ban on sperm from all European countries with exposure to mad cow disease means U.S. sperm banks are running low. The May 2005 decision by the Food and Drug Administration effectively blocked donors from Denmark to the United Kingdom. And while some sperm banks have had enough frozen stocks to cope with demand, they are now facing shortages. ‘We still have a little bit left, but not much,’ said Claus Rodgaard, manager of Cryos International, a Danish-based sperm bank with an office in New York. ‘We’re not here to promote people to have blond, blue-eyed babies, but if those are the kinds of characteristics you’re looking for, then Danish sperm is good for that,’ Rodgaard said. ‘That’s all we have in Denmark.’ Scientists say the ban is not justified. ‘The consensus in the United Kingdom is that this is a silly ban,’ said Dr. Allan Pacey, an andrology expert at the University of Sheffield and secretary of the British Fertility Society. ‘There’s no evidence to show that mad cow disease can be […]

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