Where’s OctoDad, some observers of the mother-of-14-IVF-kids saga are asking. Apparently Nadya Suleman used a single sperm donor for all of her brood, even though he begged her to stop after her first 6. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Kay Hymowitz links anonymous sperm donors to the legions of American "deadbeat dads" who have abandoned mothers and their children. "The reaction to Ms Suleman and her brood typifies our cultural ambivalence about fathers, an ambivalence fed in no small measure by the fertility industry." She opposes anonymous donation because, she argues, research shows that children need a close relationship with fathers:

"But our equivocation about paternity is finally untenable. Out-of-wedlock birth rates in the US are now 38%; among African-Americans the figure is 70%. Fathers of children living with single mothers are far less involved with their children than are married fathers; about a third of all children in single-mother families have not seen their father in the previous year. Yet decades of social science have made it clear: Children who grow up without their fathers experience more poverty, have more problems at school, more trouble with the law -- and more single motherhood in the next generation."

The problem is not just amongst the poor. A recent New York Times Magazine feature focuses on the growing number of unmarried college-educated women in their 30s, 40s and 50s who acquire children through adoption or IVF. The birthrate for unmarried college-educated women has climbed 145% since 1980, compared with a 60% increase in the birthrate for less educated women. ~ Wall Street Journal, Feb 20