James M. Goldfarb
Editor

2014

A Comprehensive Guide

Third-party reproduction includes any process in which a person other than
the one(s) desiring to have a family provides sperm or eggs or use of a uterus
so that another person or couple can have a child. For many years, third-party
reproduction was limited to the use of donor sperm and was not done openly.
The first use of sperm donation is thought to have occurred in 1884, but it was
done without the wife’s knowledge and it was not reported in a journal until
25 years later. As late as 1954 the Supreme Court of Cook County stated that
even if the husband consented to the donor insemination, it was considered
adultery and the child was illegitimate.