Human Artificial Insemination: Creation of a fatherless society

According to Wikipedia, Artificial Insemination is ‘the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female’s uterus or cervix for the purpose of achieving pregnancy through in vitro fertilisation by means other than sexual intercourse.’

The technology was initially developed and used in farm animals to speed up the rate of genetic improvement with the sole reason of increasing productivity of meat producing animals. This is achieved by selecting one or two male animals with special qualities to mate or service thousands of females.

As this technique proved successful in farm animals, the scientists made a breakthrough in humans as well. In fact, it has really pushed the frontier of human science.

For couples Human Artificial Insemination (HAI) has been in use in other parts of the world long before it was introduced into the Ghanaian society recently. The primary objective of human artificial insemination is to help only married couples who are suffering from unexplained infertility, cervical problems, physical or psychological sexual dysfunction and mild to moderate sub-fertility to have children.

Nowadays, it is no more a preserve of such couples; women with no male partners or for different reasons are also patronising the services of HAI and if not controlled, this may have the potential of procreating children without fathers in the near future.

So the big question is how does HAI create a fatherless society? It must be noted that every human society comprises individual families. Ideally, each family must consist of a mother and father with the father being the head.

In most African societies (which I accept is often patriarchal) it is also socially, culturally and religiously acceptable that the father is the head of the family and must be responsible for the well being and physical safety of the family at large. This role does not mean the man is a dictator but equal partner with the wife (wives). This shows that fatherhood is therefore, equally, a necessary condition in child upbringing.

Human Artificial Insemination has become a preferred choice for some women who do not want to marry for one reason or another, yet want to be biological mothers. They hope to achieve this by buying sperms of young men of their choice and these sperms are inseminated into their wombs artificially by specialists to get them pregnant and have children.

Sperms for sale In addition to this, some women whose wombs cannot support lives negotiate with young ladies, pay them good sums of money on agreement that they will get pregnant and have babies for them through HAI with the sperms they purchase from desirable sperm donors. As a result, these children are born without fathers.

Surprisingly, a GTV documentary has also lent credence to the fact that young men are really into the sperm selling business; it is a very lucrative business for these young men especially, university students. It is an interesting phenomenon which I would term as ‘commercialisation of sperms and wombs in contemporary society.’

I believe that the current growing nature of HAI should be a concern to all because we are humans and need to have clear defined family trees. So, I think, parliament should pass laws now to regulate artificial insemination in Ghana. This is because if HAI becomes popular and society sees it as normal then, I anticipate that women will no longer attach importance to marriage which will render the importance of socio-cultural paternity not worth mentioning.

The writer is with the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA), University of Ghana, Legon Writer’s e-mail:edinyo2001@yahoo.com/egborgbor@ug.edu.gh