Redheads Turned Down By Sperm Bank

Redheads Turned Down By Sperm Bank
First Posted: 9/19/11 03:11 PM ET Updated: 9/19/11 06:46 PM ET


The largest sperm bank in the world is saying no thanks to potential redheaded sperm donors.

Cryos International sperm bank has started to turn down redheaded applicants because of a lack of demand, The Telegraph reports.

The Atlantic wonders if the lack of demand could be because of the teasing redheaded children sometimes have to put up with. HuffPost reporter Katherine Bindley blogs that being a redhead is a love-hate relationship, and points out how negative feelings towards redheads is a prejudice "that dates back, globally, at least to ancient Egypt and personally, to approximately the time I started forming memories." The Atlantic also notes that the New York Times published an article about redheads being more sensitive to physical pain.

A Buzzfeed blogger can think of at least three reasons why people should have redheaded children.

But, this sort of parental selection is on the rise. Earlier in the month a Times piece noted that patients in the United States can choose sperm donors "based not only on their height, hair color and ethnicity but also on their academic and athletic accomplishments, temperament, hairiness and even the length of a donor’s eyelashes." What's next? Parents who only want children genetically programmed to make their beds?