Given the small number of people involved, did the Nobel Prize sperm bank have any lasting effects?
The Repository changed the way Americans think about fertility. This was the only bank at the time that gave a lot of health information about its donors, and a number of these women told me that that was what sold them, even more than the intelligence aspect of it. The major sperm banks have caught up and far surpassed what the repository was doing, so what has actually happened is that all sperm banks have become eugenics sperm banks. They are only getting guys who are very tall, who are very healthy and come from quite distinguished academic backgrounds. The difference is that Robert Graham did it to remake the world and prevent genetic decline. Sperm banks are doing it purely because consumers demand it. In general, fertility has gone from being doctor-driven to consumer-driven, and I think the repository is a key landmark in that. Q: So did Robert Graham’s eugenics experiment fail? A: I think ultimately it ended up being a nurture project rather than a nature project. What Robert
