A recent nationwide study of the practice of artificial insemination by donor (AID) in the United States shows that 10% of the physicians queried occasionally use the technique to assist single women wishing to have children.
The study, conducted by Martin Curie-Cohen, PhD, and Sander S. Shapiro, MD, of the University of Wisconsin Hospital, described inadequate screening of sperm donors, a lack of concern for the multiple use of donors, inadequate record-keeping, as well as a lack of a uniform set of standards as a poor base for the "responsible" practice of artificial insemination.
"The medical profession must establish more rigorous standards for conducting AID," said Curie-Cohen. "Right now there is a lack of reliable information about why—and under what circumstances—doctors use the technique."
The Wisconsin study was based on a sampling of nearly 500 physicians: members of the American Fertility Society, all of the authors of scientific articles on