The already controversial BeautifulPeople.com, a dating site with a strict ban on ugly people, has taken this one step further, and this will surely be hotly debated again. It has recently launched a virtual sperm and egg bank for people who want to have beautiful babies. The Beautiful Baby service – which is also available to non-members – was created for people who want to maximize their chances of having good looking children.

This raises for me all sorts of disturbing issues. Who will decide what beauty is, for instance? And is not beauty a quality of the inner heart and of character as much as a visual phenomenon?

Managing director Greg Hodge said: “BeautifulPeople.com has launched a fertility introduction service to help members and non-members alike procreate.  There are no financial benefits for us in doing so – we are simply responding to a demand for attractive donors.  Every parent would like their child to be blessed with many fine attributes, attractiveness being one of the most sought after.  For a site with members who resemble Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Angelina Jolie you can imagine the demand.” Since its creation in 2002, BeautifulPeople.com has become the world’s largest community of beautiful people with over 600,000 members from 190 countries.

Founder Robert Hintze added: “Initially, we hesitated to widen the offering to non-beautiful people.  But everyone – including ugly people – would like to bring good looking children in to the world, and we can’t be selfish with our attractive gene pool.”

In an attempt to explain this initiative, Jean Smith a cultural anthropologist said, “BeautifulPeople.com is doing what people are doing anyway, which is securing what they believe to be the highest level of genetic material they can, to ensure the best chance of success for their offspring. This service makes it easier for those who subscribe to the same ideal of beauty as those of ‘Beautiful People’ to find donors whom they perceive to supply appropriate genetic material.” As a testament to it’s success in helping attractive people meet, already, over 600 beautiful babies have been born to couples who met through the site, a fact which is attracting the attention of broody individuals and fertility clinics.

How the virtual sperm bank will work

The BeautifulPeople.com virtual sperm bank is a forum where members register and state their procreation interests.  A number of members already registered on the forum are married or in a relationship where for many reasons, an external donor is required.  Likewise, many men have been able to register to help infertile couples or single women to conceive healthy, attractive offspring.

There are many levels on which this virtual sperm bank can benefit the community.  As well as non-members, men and women within the BeautifulPeople.com community who are seeking more than romance or social interaction are able to use the forum as an additional facility where they are able to enter relationships, but with an upfront attitude to their family goals. Members wishing to donate will be able to access information on which clinics to contact and gather information on the donor protocol.

espite the seemingly conceited approach, there is a good side to this program. Dr Mohamed Menabawey, media director at The London Bridge Fertility, Gynecology and Genetics Center is positive about the BeautifulPeople.com donor service, “The removal of donor anonymity has created the massive UK shortage. The cost, confusion and damage of what many believe now to be failed anonymity legislation is there for all to see. It is manifested in the shortage of donor gametes and growing fertility tourism.”

BeautifulPeople.com member James Frederiksen is one of many singles who have used the fertility forum and expressed an interest in donating sperm. “I’m from Norway and it’s very common for young, healthy men there to donate sperm. There seems to be a shortage worldwide, being a BeautifulPeople.com member I wanted to do whatever I could to help others create beautiful babies.”

You may call this nepotism – we just adore ourselves too much that we just need in an extremely boastful way to flaunt it, or may be it’s just simple vanity – we can afford everything we want so why not a beautiful baby in tow as well, and lastly maybe we want to be like God and be able to control the physical attributes of our babies. Whatever reasons people may have for joining this program, it is best to remember that a baby’s entry into this world is a miracle by itself and that is enough reason to call all babies as beautiful!

I remain wholly sceptical of this initative and hope that others will be too. I think that it is misguided to select one aspect of beauty over another in this facile way.

Related articles:

• BeautifulPeople.com Launches Virtual Sperm Bank (newswire.ca)
• Dating Site Launches Online Sperm and Egg Bank for “Beautiful People” (mashable.com)
• BeautifulPeople Dating Website Now Selling Designer Sperm and Eggs [Dating Sites] (gizmodo.com)