Personal Injury Law

Mad Cow Restrictions Lead To Nordic Sperm Shortage In U.S.

About 100,000 South Koreans hit the bricks almost every night for two months because, they claimed, U.S. beef imports came with too great a risk for Mad Cow disease.  

Now, however, women in the market for Nordic sperm claim that restrictions to protect Americans from the human variety of Mad Cow are going too far.

The Washington Post yesterday reported on the restrictions health officials have instituted to protect Americans against the human form of mad cow disease. U.S. import restrictions barring sperm banks from importing from Europe for fear it might spread the brain-ravaging pathogen that causes Mad Cow disease.

The Nordic donors were popular because of their blue eyes and blond hair, and their tendency to be tall and have advanced degrees.  And sperm from those donors is now running out in the U.S., sending prices up and women trekking to Europe.

The Washington Post reported:

The restrictions on sperm from Europe were among the steps the U.S. government took in the wake of the mad cow outbreak in Europe in the late 1990s. In rare cases, people who eat meat from infected animals develop the fatal, untreatable illness called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The ailment is caused by an infectious mutant protein that slowly eats away brain tissue. Some people have been infected through contaminated surgical equipment and transplanted tissue, such as corneas, but there are no known cases of infection from sperm.

Someone should let South Korea know how careful we are being over here.  Check out the Wapo story here.

Full post as published by Mad Cow Blog on August 13, 2008 (boomark / email).