A man in US has the unique distinction of never having had sex but still managing to father 14 children through sperm donation.
Trent Arsenault, 36, hit the headlines last December when his free sperm bank came under investigation from the US Food and Drug Administration, which threatened him with a 100,000-dollar fine and up to a year in jail.
Now, the California local who bills himself as having an ideal gene pool to father children, has revealed that he is still a virgin.
He made this confession on Anderson Cooper’s daytime show, ‘Anderson’. The self-confessed tech-geek, an expert in Silicon Valley, is in the highly unusual position of never having had sex, but fathering 14 healthy offspring.
“I coined this term ‘donor sexual’ and I’ll explain it means 100 per cent of my sexual energy is for producing sperm for childless couples to have babies. So I don’t have other activity outside of that,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying on the show.
“I will probably be the 40-year-old virgin… except I’ll have 15 plus kids,’ he said.
The audience greeted that statement with applause while Cooper was left laughing in confusion.
Arsenault was visibly moved by meeting one of his offspring for the first time, when Analise, who turns two this week, walked on to the stage at the show.
“I’m trying to not get too emotional,” he said.
“I’m just extremely happy that she’s healthy and in a loving home. I hope she has the gene of compassion and that her parents nurture that,” he said.
Through a website, he touts his sperm as being organic but a health expert on the show warned that his unusual approach to fatherhood opens the door to spreading viral diseases such as HIV.
Her fears echo those of the FDA which claims Arsenault did not take precautions to prevent disease spreading and found him to be unlawfully manufacturing human cells.
The agency issued a ‘cease-and-desist order’ in what is the first ever case of its kind involving a private sperm donor in the US.
Arsenault said in the past that he is simply helping out childless couples in situations where the only other alternative would be sex with a stranger.
“I’m helping people in need... I’m not running a business here,” he was quoted as telling the Huffington Post.