But at a basic, human level, I appreciate what he's done. I do. I just found out last week that my sweet cousin Andy and his wife are going to have a baby. And the egg was not hers. They're in their early forties, solvent, and are the kindest, most generous people you'd ever be lucky enough to know. Just really fantastic, gentle, hilarious human beans. They've been trying to get pregnant for years, but it just hasn't happened for them.

And a really decent person came along and gave them some of her eggs, and it worked, and now they get to have a family of their own. And the joy it has given them makes me kind of misty just thinking about it.

So yeah, maybe the Ed Houben is a bit strange. And yeah, we all need to be having fewer kids. But man, it's still an AWESOME thing to do for a family. It really is. It's not curing cancer, and it's not creating world peace. But it is bringing just a tiny bit of happiness into the world, and you know? We can always do with more of that.

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*headdesk*

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Call me a pessimistic, east coast liberal skeptic, but I'm also thinking you get something either emotionally, egotistically, or sexually satisfying out of this deal, too.

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One of the men interviewed had been regularly donating - twice a week at €40 a pop for over three years while in college. In the present financial climate it may become an attractive option for many men. Regulation needs to be tightened though to prevent clusters of genetically connected individuals.

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But how hard is it for 46 kids who desperately want a father?

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