Women can now pick a sperm donor using a Tinder-style app

Searching for a sperm donor? Well, a solution now lies in the palm of your hand.

(Sorry). The London Sperm Bank has just launched a new mobile app that allows users to select a sperm donor based on traits including race, nationality and eye colour. The app allows its clients to hone their search by browsing through potential fathers, and creating a “wish list” alert that notifies them when a donor with their requested characteristics becomes available.   Users need to make payment of £950 through the app when they've selected their preferred donor. The sample will then be sent to the fertility specialist where the woman is undergoing treatment. It seems like a practical, modern innovation to help prospective parents, and it is legal, having met the requirements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates IVF treatments. But the app has its critics, who have dubbed it "order a daddy" and "dial-a-dad". Josephine Quintavalle, from Comment on Reproductive Ethics group, told The Sunday Times:

"How much further can we go in the trivialisation of parenthood? This is reproduction via the mobile phone. It’s digital dads. Choose Daddy. This is the ultimate denigration of fatherhood."

In response, Dr Kamal Ahuja, scientific director of the London Sperm Bank, said:

“You make all the transactions online, like you do anything else these days. “This allows a woman who wants to get a sperm donor to gain control in the privacy of her own home and to choose and decide in her own time. We think this is the first of its kind in the world.”