Sperm/Egg donations: Would you do it?

[Bluehound]

I don't think anyone should feel guilty about wanting to have kids of their own, and if they are prepared to go to extremes to do it, fair enough.
Life is short, you must do what feels right as long as you are not harming anyone else.
The tools are there now and they will be used and after all it is built into us (as a species, there are a few individual exceptions obviously) to want to procreate.

But it still remains that the world population has nearly doubled in my lifetime and I am still in my 30's - that is a scary fact.

[TurquoiseSunset]

Morals and philosophy aside... If it didn't hurt and didn't involve hormone injections and legal liability, etc. I would do it. I have perfectly good eggs going to waste... Plus, I'm awesome. Why wouldn't someone want to have a mini me??

I might consider going through with it for a family member though...but that involves a whole different set of issues.

[Polednice]

The always wonderful Hans Rosling recently gave another statistical TED talk demonstrating that the natural tendency towards smaller numbers of children in both rich and poor families across the world will lead to a static global population level of 10 billion in the near future - I certainly hope this is the case, as the extrapolation from current levels of growth gives us a doubling rate of around 70 years, which is unsustainable. Anyone who buys into the myth that we can deal with just any number of humans is a little short-sighted, to put it mildly.

Completely regardless of the population question, however, I would still state that I would decline sperm donation for no ethical reasons except that I think people ought to prioritise adoption.

[Emil Miller]

All of the arguments made so far have been predicated on the retention of human life on this planet but, given that humans have populated the Earth for some 15 million years and the Earth has been in existence for over 4 billion years, mankind's sojourn is of relatively short duration. It may be that, as a species, we will become extinct in the manner of many others that preceded us, for who knows what epidemics, wars and other forms of mass extinction are around the corner? Naturally, we have to think in the here and now but it's worth taking into account that we may only be here on nature's sufferance.