‘Order a daddy’ app for women to choose a sperm donor

We have ‘Order a meal’ app, then there are ‘Order a hair spa- pedicure- home cleaning- even a house help’ apps but have you ever heard about ‘Order a daddy’ app? Sounds odd, right!

Believed to be the first service of its kind in the world, this on-demand daddy ordering app is for British women looking for a sperm donor to father their child.

London Sperm Bank Donors, dubbed the “order a daddy” app, lets women browse for potential fathers by choosing a donor with desired physical characteristics such as hair and eye colour or height. Filters also include educational level, occupation and the personality traits of men.

Women can also create a “wish list” alert that informs them when a donor with their desired characteristics becomes available. The search function on the app provides a list of potential fathers – titled by number such as “Donor 1000” and “Donor 1004” – with their physical characteristics listed below.

Users can buy a donor’s sperm sample by making payment of £950 via the app, and the sample is then delivered to the fertility clinic where the woman is being treated. About half of Britain’s IVF clinics are said to have registered to use the service.

Though the app, which promotes itself as a way to “plan your family on the go”, is legal and meets the requirements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the IVF regulator in the UK, critics believe the digital service trivializes and denigrates parenthood.

Notwithstanding the critique, Dr Kamal Ahuja, scientific director of the London Sperm Bank who also launched the app says that the service is mark of increasingly digitizing world.

Also, “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,” he added.