The night-walkers of Uganda

‘Holy moly’ - sperm donor meets his children
Level 1
Elementary
Key words
1
Find the information
2
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible.
1. When did Jeffrey Harrison donate his sperm?
2. How old is Mr Harrison’s daughter Danielle?
3. How much money did Mr Harrison receive for his sperm?
4. How many members does the Donor Sibling Registry have?
5. How many children are born each year in the USA from donated sperm?
6. How many people does the Donor Sibling Registry put in touch each month?
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‘Holy moly’ - sperm donor comes face 
to face with his children 20 years later
Father comes forward after teenagers conduct 
search through website. 
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
February 16, 2007
The man and the young woman look like each 
other. They have the same high forehead, their 
noses are almost the same, even their hair 
and build are similar. They could be father and 
daughter. But there is one important difference. 
They met for the first time this week. The man, 
Jeffrey Harrison, lives with his four dogs in a 
motor home in Venice, California. The woman, 
Ryann M, is a teenager living in a normal family.
Now they know a lot more about each other. 
They know that they are father and daughter. 
They know that Ryann was born thanks to 
sperm given by Mr Harrison in the 1980s. They 
also know Ryann is one of six half-siblings. Mr 
Harrison may need to get a bigger home! “It’s 
quite clear that he’s their father,” said Wendy 
Kramer, whose website put Mr Harrison in touch 
with his offsping. “I looked at the photo and 
thought, ‘Oh my God’.” 
When Mr Harrison met his offspring for the first 
time he was surprised. “The first thing he said 
was, ‘Holy moly’,” 17-year-old Danielle Pagano, 
another of Mr Harrison’s children, told the New 
York Times after meeting him this week. “He’s 
a free spirit, and I don’t care what job he has.” 
Three of Mr Harrison’s offspring have been very 
active in finding him, two of them, in their early 
teens, still do not know about him. 
Mr Harrison decided to contact the website after 
reading a newspaper article about two teenage 
girls who had found out that they were born from 
his sperm and were trying to find him. The article 
made him “choke on his coffee”. He had visited a 
sperm bank in the 1980s and received between 
$50 and $100 for each sperm sample. The sperm 
bank put the label Donor 150 on his sperm. He 
also gave them a personal profile and many of 
the bank’s clients requested Mr Harrison’s sperm 
when they read his profile. The profile is a little 
different from how Mr Harrison is today, however. 
“Degree in philosophy from Europe,” reads 
Donor 150’s description. “Dancer/Musician/
Fitness Instructor/Writer. Interests: Health, guitar, 
swimming, dancing, writing, travel. Loves animals 
and children. Is a ‘happy-go-lucky’ person.” 
Three years ago Ms Kramer started a website 
called the Donor Sibling Registry. Two of Mr 
Harrison’s offspring contacted each other through 
the website. Now the Donor Sibling Registry has 
over 7,000 members, including 430 donors who 
would like to meet their offspring. 
At the weekend, Mr Harrison emailed a copy of 
his birth certificate to Ms Kramer, and confirmed 
that he was Donor 150. “We talked for hours 
on Saturday night,” Ms Kramer said. “It was a 
very big risk for him. He wanted to make contact 
with his offspring but was a little bit nervous and 
afraid.” The same day, Ms Kramer contacted the 
families. “I told them to take their time and to take 
things slowly. But I don’t think they listened to my 
advice. They were all very excited and the next 
day everybody was calling each other.” 
Ms Kramer is sure that the offspring will get on 
with their biological father. “He’s a simple man 
and he lives a very simple life,” she said. “These 
girls don’t care about his job or his money. He’s 
very kind, very sweet and open, and he has a 
great sense of humour.” 
This story is unusual but it is not unique. There 
is not much control over sperm donations in the 
United States. Nobody knows whether a donor’s 
sperm is ever used, or how many children are 
born from one donor’s sperm. 
This week the Donor Sibling Registry put two 
donor fathers in touch with their offspring. In a 
normal month, the website puts 60-80 people in 
touch with each other, said Ms Kramer. One of 
the donors listed on her website has 50 offspring; 
another says he has 22 children. The sperm 
bank industry says that around 30,000 children