Sperm bank

Seed banks exist in human medicine as well as in livestock and crop production .

The term sperm bank has several closely related meanings:

Facilities in which sperm are frozen and stored so that they can be used for artificial insemination at a later date .
The numerous seed libraries in plant breeding , in which plant seeds are stored under optimal conditions and thus secured for the future.
The germinable plant seeds naturally in the soil . These are taking into account the spore plants and z. B. brooding bulbs also called diaspore bank.

Human medicine

In the field of human medicine, a so-called sperm bank provides (fertilizable) sperm to couples or single women with a previously unfulfilled desire to have children. The sperm are collected in the sperm bank, stored and can be called up at any time. According to a judgment by the OLG Hamm , children conceived in this way have the right to know the name of the sperm donor.

Since 1986, sperm donation has been a legal method of artificial insemination in Germany . In Germany, sperm banks are obliged to ensure that sperm donors are qualified. Quality assurance is based, among other things, on the relevant resolutions of German legislation. In Germany, the Embryo Protection Act in its 1991 version and the guidelines of the German Medical Association currently regulate all matters relating to artificial insemination. From this it can be seen that, for ethical and legal reasons, certain requirements are necessary in order to be allowed to carry out artificial insemination.

While the guidelines of the German Medical Association set up legally non-binding criteria, which are part of the professional code of doctors, the Embryo Protection Act must be observed from a legal point of view as a federal act by sperm banks.

Rainbow family

see main article: Rainbow family

The requirement on marital status, which is not contained in the Embryo Protection Act, but in a directive of the German Medical Association revised in 2006, according to which only married couples or heterosexual couples in a stable partnership should have access to a sperm bank, is very controversial . In particular, lesbian, civilly married couples require access to artificial insemination, as is also permitted in several neighboring EU countries.