A reader points me to this article,which reports:
Currently, 15 women are known to have been infected with HIV via artificial insemination using sperm from anonymous donors . . . [including] six in the United States. All but one of these cases of insemination-related infection occurred before the availability of HIV antibody testing.
The article (which is the first item shown by a google search for “hiv insemination”) also reported that “approximately 75,000 women are artificially inseminated annually in the United States.” If this is so — and of course we’d want to know whether others disagree with these statistics — then perhaps HIV screening is enough, and there is no need to disqualify homosexual donors. It’s certainly possible; in fact, it would be excellent.
But again, the Washington Post article said nothing about this. This is interesting, useful information that actually helps readers think through the matter, especially if coupled with some sense of what other scientists think about this. But instead of getting this, the Post readers got something that looks more like a press release.
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