The sale of sperm to women desirous of having children is now brisk business at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, the Ghanaian Times investigations have revealed.

The times gathered that more than 60 women, including some from Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon visit the hospital every month to purchase the sperm for fertilization.

A source at the hospital who spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity, said many women called at the hospital daily to enquirer about the sperm and arrange for its purchase.

A syringe-sized container of sperm is sold between GHC2,000 and GHC3,000 and this has attracted a lot of young men to the hospital who serve as donors. These donors are between the ages of 18 and 45 years.

The business, the source said, started unofficially about five years ago and had become lucrative for young energetic students and others who are eager to make money.

Although the hospital is under resourced, and do not officially have a sperm bank, medical practitioners have been able to use their ingenuity to perform successful sperm fertilization.

Speaking to the Times, a medical expert at the hospital, who asked not to be named, said the donors were taken through series of blood test and sperm analysis to ensure that their sperm did not contain any disease that could be passed on to the customer.

“We further check the hereditary of the person to ensure that the family did not suffer from diseases such as epilepsy, deafness and other serious medical ailments before the sperm is donated,” the source said.

It further noted that, most of the women who want to purchase the sperm were concern about the ethnic background of the donor, explaining “that a woman who has a Fanti husband would like the sperm from a Fanti man”.

“Other women also prefer a sperm from a Northern, Ewe, Ashanti or Ga because they are married to men from those ethnic backgrounds,” it added.

The source said single women and foreign women who patronized the sperms preferred sperms from tall and dark male donors.

It said others also like to look at the background of the donor, such as profession, physical appearance and status in society.

The source noted that, though most women come alone for insemination, others are also encouraged by their husbands to undergo such exercise due to their inabilities to make them pregnant.

Other men, the source said, look for donors for their wives to be sure that the specific sperm would be used for fertilization.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of Korle Bu, Mr. Mustapha Salifu, said the authorities were unaware of such practices in the hospital, and added that it would not be surprising that some doctors would engage in such practices.

He said it would be illegal for doctors in the health profession to use the hospital to engage in such illegal activities.

He indicated however that, the hospital had plans of establishing a sperm bank and that until that was done, such activities would be regarded as illegal at the hospital.

Selling sperm is completely legal in most countries except Australia and Vatican City, however in Ghana it could raise numerous religious, social, health and legal debates.

Some religious leaders had agitated in the past that, a married woman who purchased sperms from another man could invite the intrusion of the other man's seed into herself.

This act they consider as adulterous, even if the husband consented to the purchase.

Health and safety issues associated with sperm donation have also been raised. This is because donors are generally required to present extensive family and personal medical data about genetic disorders, as well as medical evaluation including screening for sexually transmitted diseases.

Legal issues could be raised as well. That is, if the sperm donor has access to the woman's identity by claiming to be the biological father of the child when the child becomes successful in life.