Mr. Harrison had been thinking about getting in touch since reading in an article in The New York Times 15 months ago that two teenagers whose mothers had used his sperm to conceive were looking for him.

Since there is not much etiquette to refer to for sperm donors, this man arbitrarily picked Valentine's Day to announce himself whose mothers had used his sperm to conceive. Hmmm, I do not quite know what to think of that! Apparently, he did announce himself to children that he already knew wanted to know his identity.

The term "dad" I put in quotes because I am not certain that I consider a sperm donor a father. There was no intention to ever be a father, right? Although I hate it when people refer to birth dads as sperm donors, (I think it is uncalled for, no matter what they may be like.)sperm donors are in a different situation. In this story a man who contributed sperm regularly for years finally decides to announce himself to some of the children who resulted from his anonymous contributions at a sperm bank.

My son and I had a discussion recently about the whole sperm donor issue. Most of the adoptees that I know, and many birth moms hate the idea of the anonymous aspect of sperm donors since it deprives the child of knowing half of their identity. Anything that decreases the chance of an adopted children being able to find out about their parenthood does bother me.

However, my son said he felt that the anonymity is an important part of insuring that there are enough donors for women who need them. Of course, he then cracked a joke about my lack of fertility problems. He is right, of course, that I have never had any issues with being infertile and cannot totally relate to the infertility experience.

Did you know that there is a donor sibling registry ? The registry is how Mr. Harrison located two of the young women who were conceived via his sperm. Yipes, I do not know what to call him or them! Calling them his daughters seems not quite right.

This donor dad(?)had some concerns that he might dissappoint the children that he helped to create. Although he was a much sought after donor, at age 50, he lives in a mobile home (trailer)and walks dogs for a living. Adoptees sometimes worry about similar scenarios for birth parents.