500 donations a year do not justify that title for me.

This happens for a single reason, briefly explained in the article:

> Unlike in the U.S., it is illegal to pay men to donate their sperm here, so domestic stocks are low and information about Brazilian donors sparse. “It basically says ‘brown eyes, brown hair, likes hamburgers’ and what their zodiac sign is—that’s it,” said Alessandra Oliva, 31, of the information available on local donors.

In Brazil they make very little information available about the donor - not enough to reach any conclusions about race. People who go to fertility clinics in Brazil are usually wealthy, wealthy people in Brazil are usually white, and people generally want their children to be the same race as themselves. So those couples look for the closest country where they can get "certifiably white" sperm for accessible prices, which happens to be the US.

The article makes this look like black and mixed-race Brazilians are trying to whiten themselves because of racism which is completely incorrect.

As a Brazilian, this is not surprising, as being white in Brazil is socially advantageous.

However, as a white person, I must correct with facts the erroneous idea that there are few whites in Brazil. That sentence in the article is mostly based on the old prejudice that south of the border everyone is the same.

Especially in the southern area (Sao Paolo included), brazilians are mostly white, with the majority descending from Italians, Portuguese and Germans. Really, this prejudice is old and should stop in the information era we live in. Whites make 48% of the Brazilian population.

But of course, many white Americans have Irish, English and German background which have the lighter of the tones of the white race. I’m not contesting that these women are after such appearance and that it’s easier to find it from donors in the US than in Brazil.

I didn’t realize this was one of our exports.

I didn't see this in the comments:

Material from Brazilian sperm banks is fully anonymous and nearly devoid of data: skin/eye color are provided -- and I think profession too. In contrast, American sperm banks provide a trainload of information: there are photos, various indicators of health and intelligence, etc.

It's not even a difference in legislation, it's a difference in the ethical guidelines of the respective medical associations.

Paywalled but...wonder if they could apply for US citizenship since technically their father is a USian?

Kind of reminds me of another article I saw a while back about Chinese women coming to the US to give birth so their children would have the option of becoming a US citizen if they wanted to later in life. Apparently there's a big business built around it.

--edit--

Wow, downvoted for pondering on a simple question...

Violence against women, misogynistic, neurotic homophobic society; the LGBT against racism and all this...then guess what: demand for blue eyed, white skin men sperm is skyrocketing. Somethings will never change, it's sad!

This is slightly off topic since the focus of this article is racial demographics and economic standing in a culture, but it's interesting that Brazil, a country which has whole heartedly adopted chemical agriculture and monocropping practices finds themselves in a place where fertility rates per woman are lower than in the US, which has one of the lowest (and also heavily relies on chemical ag). As an investigative journalism piece, I think teasing out the effects of industrial agriculture from other social factors that contribute to people CHOOSING not to have children and relating that to fertility rates would be a much more substantive article than looking at sperm imports where n=500.

> He sees children as a way to perpetuate his genes and ensure his existence beyond death. “It’s an atheist’s way to achieve immortality,” he said.

This desire is futile and I hope it's not really anchored in the atheist mindset.

It's paywalled but I wonder if one of the reasons is the Zika virus[1]?

Like if a Brazilian male partner is infected, would they try to find a non-brazilian(to be safe since it's asymptomatic) sperm donor?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9316_Zika_virus_epi...

> It was estimated that 1.5 million people were infected by Zika in Brazil, with over 3,500 cases of microcephaly reported between October 2015 and January 2016.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zika_virus

EDIT: I don't care about the karma but I am curious what part of this comment is attracting the downvotes?

Over my 35-year career in electronics and software I've been most concerned that the U.S has almost completely out-sourced it's manufacturing capability further exacerbating the import/export balance. <sarcasm>It's good to see that we've found another product category that we're good at producing and that seems to have demand outside our borders!</sarcasm>

Isn't Brazil in America?

Strange headline. Last time I looked at a map, Brazil was part of America. Where else would they look for Sperm? Asia, Europe? (Of course I read along and even before knew they meant the United Stated, but America is not the United States.)