[extropy-chat] the human race

[Damien Broderick]

[from Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers
Limited 2005 ]

Big sperm race is staged on German reality TV

After Big Brother and Jungle Camp, Germans can tune in to a TV
reality show this week that breaks new ground in trashiness ...
Sperm Race. Twelve men will compete against each other to see which
one of them has the "fastest" sperm.

The contestants, who include two German celebrities and a health
freak, begin by donating sperm in a clinic, say the programme's
producers, Endemol.

The sperm will then be frozen and sent to the company's studio in
Cologne, where the sperm will 'race' towards an egg -- lured by a
chemical that encourages them across the finishing line. Three
doctors, including a gynaecologist, will be on hand to make sure the
sperm behave correctly, while cameras will record it all.

As well as laying claim to the title of Germany's most fertile man,
the winner will also be given a suitably German reward, a red
Porsche.

Endemol Germany's president, Boris Brandt, denied on Saturday that
Sperm Race represented a new low point in dumbed-down TV. He claimed
that the show had a serious scientific purpose. "Sperm Race is
serious. Fertility is a big thing in Germany,' he told Germany's
Bild newspaper.

"About 1,8-million German men are unable to have children because
they suffer from poor sperm. And there are disappointed girlfriends
and wives, as well as parents who wait in vain for grandchildren."

Brandt, whose company is responsible for the German Big Brother ,
said the cameras would not follow the contestants into the cubicles
when they donated sperm. -