The Repository for Germinal Choice (originally named the Hermann J. Muller Repository for Germinal Choice, after Nobel laureate Hermann Joseph Muller) was a sperm bank that operated in Escondido, California from 1980 to 1999. The repository is commonly believed to have accepted only donations from recipients of the Nobel Prize, although in fact it accepted donations from non-Nobelists, also. The first baby conceived from the project was a girl born on April 19, 1982. Founded by Robert Klark Graham, the repository was dubbed the "Nobel prize sperm bank" by media reports at the time. The only contributor who became known publicly was William Shockley, Nobel laureate in physics and eugenicist.

Management

Robert Graham managed the bank until his death in February 1997 and the responsibilities were passed to Floyd Kimble, a businessman from Ohio who had shown interest in the bank. At the time of Graham's death, the bank claimed to have produced 217 children, none of whom from sperm donated from Graham's initial focus, Nobel Prize winners. When Kimble died in 1998 the combined relatives of both men decided to close down the bank. All sperm samples were destroyed; it remains unclear what happened to the Repository's records.

In media

Journalist David Plotz wrote several articles on the repository for the online magazine, Slate. Plotz would later write a book about his experiences investigating the repository in the book The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank (2005). Moreover, a documentary, which aired on BBC Horizon in 2006, went over the history of the Repository and various statements made by Graham. The program also featured discussion from another donor, University of Central Oklahoma biology professor James Bidlack.

The Big Bang Theorys pilot episode satirizes the repository when Leonard and Sheldon visit the "high-IQ sperm bank," intending to donate specimens, only to leave after Sheldon suffers a moral crisis over committing "genetic fraud" by donating sperm that may not produce the promised genius offspring.

Episode 5 of This is Life with Lisa Ling focused on the sperm bank, interviewing people who donated, people who went to the sperm bank seeking donated sperm, and people who were born as a result.

The German novel Fast genial ("Almost Genius") by Benedict Wells tells the story of a fictitious child produced by the sperm bank, who searches for his biological father.

See also

  • Heritability of IQ
  • My Uncle Oswald

References

9. Singareddy, Nikita "The Nobel Prize Sperm

Bank"

https://waitingroom.substack.com/p/the-nobel-prize-sperm-bank

24 June 2020

Further reading

  • Plotz, David, The Genius Factory, 2005, Random House.
  • Series of Slate.com articles on the sperm bank
  • Guardian article on Graham and his bank's history
  • BBC Article
  • Horizon Episode