Joe Donor believes he is a hero to women across the world. Photo / 60 Minutes
A US sperm donor, known only as 'Joe Donor' spends his time travelling the world and impregnating as many women as possible.
He has told the 60 Minutes program it is his life's work, but critics say he is dangerous and has no place meeting with vulnerable women.
Joe Donor claims to have already fathered more than 100 children, to women all over the world, and his current destination is Australia.
While here, Joe plans to impregnate 15 different women with his sperm and continue his widespread lineage, news.com.au reported.
Joe told reporter Liz Hayes he had impregnated women aged from 20 to 40, but says he is under no illusions that these encounters will ever lead to love.
"I'm basically only having sex to get women pregnant," Joe said.
"I'm not chasing rainbows (or) fantasies."
He has arrived in Australia, armed with no medical checks or legal contracts to protect himself or the women in his transactions.
"Some people they want to do a background check, (or a) drug test," he said.
"And I'm like you know you're not giving me the keys to the nuclear missiles, we're just making a baby."
The comments have left lawyers and doctors angered and worried about the health of his clientele.
Lawyer Stephen Page believes Joe Donor is "dangerous".
"I just think he's mad, and dangerous, and these women shouldn't be going anywhere near him," Mr Page said.
SHARNEY AND LIZ
Joe's first stop, after a flight from Chile to Melbourne, was with Sharney and her wife Liz.
Sharney said her first thought when she saw her sperm donor at the arrivals terminal was that "he's very short".
Sharney and Liz told 60 Minutes they were desperate to have a child, but couldn't afford the cost of an IVF clinic so they had contacted Joe.
"It honestly was an opportunity that we couldn't not take," Sharney said.
Instead of the natural insemination service Joe offers, Sharney requested a delivery of Joe's semen, which he did less than six hours after arriving in Australia.
Sharney said the encounter with Joe was uncomfortable.
"It was very awkward, but I tried to make it so that it was as quick as possible, so that then my wife and I could share in the moment … of making a baby," she said.
"I wanted to make that private and create that special moment between us."
Joe claims the maximum number of 'deliveries' he has made in a day was five, also claiming he once had two successes in the same day.
But he says his clients don't need to know his history or personal details as they were after a pregnancy, "not an autobiography".
Sharney's attempt to fall pregnant with Joe Donor's sperm was not successful, which she said was extremely disappointing.
"Especially because there is so much hype around Joe, we were definitely hopeful there would be an advantage, but maybe not," Sharney said.
But following the experience, Sharney and Liz began having second thoughts about Joe Donor and have instead decided to consult a fertility clinic.
"What's he getting out of it?" they asked.
"That's the thing, I'm honestly not really sure, it's really strange."
TRACEY AND BELLA
During the same trip to Australia, Joe also assisted Tracey and Bella to conceive another child.
One of the couple's seven children, Braxton, was conceived with a sperm donor, so the pair said they were already familiar with the concept.
Tracey said they weren't bothered by the number of children Joe Donor had fathered previously, as long as their attempt was successful.
"They're not in Australia for one, but look it obviously means he's got swimmers to have that many," Tracey said.
When the three participants met outside a motel room, Joe handed over his semen with a swift "good luck" and closed the door.
Weeks later, the excited couple announced they were expecting their eighth child.
This will be Joe Donor's first Australian child.
Lawyer Stephen Page has urged any children born to Joe Donor, to claim child support and inheritance from him, in the event of his death.
He also had a pretty strongly worded message for Joe Donor himself.
"Mate, just give it a break. Stop doing it. You're not God," Mr Page said.
"You're screwing up these women's lives, and you're potentially screwing up the lives of all the kids that you've created."
DELIVERIES
Joe Donor said he has delivered his semen to women in Queensland, southern Victoria, Adelaide and Sydney.
He claimed to have had sexual intercourse with half of the women he visited on his trip around Australia.
But he was doubtful that he may have unknowingly contracted a sexually transmitted disease on his travels.
"The theoretical risk that someone could have a disease which has symptoms which no one could see or feel … it all sounds very theoretical to me," Joe said.
During the interview, Hayes appeared to become irritated by Joe's cavalier attitude towards his work, suggesting he was risking women's lives deliberately.
"No I'm not, I'm helping women achieve their dreams. No one has become sick," Joe said.
According to Joe, the real risk is that "a woman will die a spinster without a child".
The reporter bit back, stating: "The real risk is that you're totally deluded."
At several times throughout the interview, the conversation became heated, as Hayes made repeated remarks that Joe Donor could be infected with an STD.
"You could be infected and not know it," Joe said.
But Hayes was quick to retaliate, saying "I'm talking about you Joe, I'm not donating, you are."
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
The self-proclaimed sperm donor took Hayes to his hotel room, where he laid out his tools he has brought with him to Australia, including a syringe to "aspirate the sperm" as well as a cup or zip lock bag to collect the semen.
Joe's job is literally 'baby-making', a skill he advertises on Facebook to women all over the world.
"Like any artist … they take pride in their work and they want to produce more work," Joe said.
"If you compose music you want to produce more songs, I think it's very normal to want to do your job well and to want to do it often."
But he claimed the best way for him to do his 'job' was via natural insemination, or sexual intercourse, which he says accounts for almost half of his transactions.
During a follow up interview with Joe, Hayes claimed the American donor was on a "narcissistic power trip".
"I don't even know what that means," Joe replied.
"Doesn't surprise me," Hayes shot back.
CHLOE ALLWORTHY
Chloe Allworthy was conceived from a sperm donor and told 60 Minutes she was extremely uncomfortable with Joe Donor's practice.
She has spent many years uneasy at the thought that the next man she has sex with could turn out to be her biological sibling.
As one of 16 sperm donor siblings, the 29-year-old has made contact with her biological father and eight of her siblings, but said she is incredibly uncomfortable that she doesn't know who the others are.
"I don't even really want to date people within my age range, because I'm so afraid that they're gonna be my brothers," she said.
Chloe said she was scared that, at some point, she could develop a condition known as "Genetic Sexual Attraction".
This occurs when two people are attracted to each other, but remain unaware that they are actually biologically linked.
"If you're meeting someone like that for the first time and you don't know that they're a sibling, you could possibly think, "Wow. There's that connection there," but not realise the connection is a sibling bond," Chloe said.
But according to Joe, GSA between his biological children wasn't his problem.
"This is the choice that their mother made," he said.
"Women make their own reproductive choices. Haven't you fought for that? You now have those rights,
"I'm just the tool by which this happens."
His comments upset Chloe, who described him as a narcissist.
"I really would urge Joe … to please reconsider, because people like myself and the donor-conceived community will be outraged by this," she said.
"It's just really unfortunate that he hasn't thought through what impact that will have on us, on the donor-conceived people born from this."
Melbourne IVF Clinic medical director Lyndon Hale said while the practice of backdoor sperm donations was fraught with risk, he understood why some women would approach Joe Donor for his services.
"The desire to have a baby is intense for some people, and this is probably one area where you could make really good decisions and really dumb decisions," Dr Hale said.
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