It actually seems pretty difficult to see how having children would, on average, be anywhere near as strong an option if your outcome measures are (1) number of children who would otherwise would not exist/reach adulthood and (2) number of children produced using your (presumably much better than donor-average) genetic material.
There are a lot of factors that influence the cost to raise a child (e.g. family income, number of children in a single household), but the USDA’s figures suggest that even a relatively low-income family ($0-60k combined household earnings) will be spending ~$175k per child. It’s no question that you could redirect that money toward organizations that would save the lives of many children for less.
Gamete donation looks pretty good, too. If you’re donating eggs, you probably won’t produce many children—IVF success rates are still fairly low, and most donors only produce 10-15 eggs per cycle (although they can donate several times). On the other hand, screening tends to be a lot less discerning for egg donors compared to sperm donors—physical/hereditary health seems to be the primary concern. So if you’re exceptionally intelligent, altruistic, and/or happy, it might be much better for your eggs to be put to use than the typical donor’s. You can also net $5-15k per cycle, which you could donate toward saving even more children.
If you’re donating sperm, you can potentially produce many more children than you could reasonably support as a caregiver (Cryos, apparently the world’s largest sperm bank, claims that the “average donor” can expect to father 25 children), but due to slightly more stringent screening, the difference between the quality of your sperm and the average donor’s might be a bit less stark. That said, most banks seem to care about things like education and height, which aren’t necessarily great proxies for the things most of us care about.
So, assuming you’re accepted as a donor and you actually follow through on donating a substantial amount of money, you can with near certainty cause many more children to reach adulthood than you could possibly raise and likely cause a few (or more) children to be born with your genes. All with a substantially lower time investment than you’d expect to sacrifice for child-rearing.
It actually seems pretty difficult to see how having children would, on average, be anywhere near as strong an option if your outcome measures are (1) number of children who would otherwise would not exist/reach adulthood and (2) number of children produced using your (presumably much better than donor-average) genetic material.
There are a lot of factors that influence the cost to raise a child (e.g. family income, number of children in a single household), but the USDA’s figures suggest that even a relatively low-income family ($0-60k combined household earnings) will be spending ~$175k per child. It’s no question that you could redirect that money toward organizations that would save the lives of many children for less.
Gamete donation looks pretty good, too. If you’re donating eggs, you probably won’t produce many children—IVF success rates are still fairly low, and most donors only produce 10-15 eggs per cycle (although they can donate several times). On the other hand, screening tends to be a lot less discerning for egg donors compared to sperm donors—physical/hereditary health seems to be the primary concern. So if you’re exceptionally intelligent, altruistic, and/or happy, it might be much better for your eggs to be put to use than the typical donor’s. You can also net $5-15k per cycle, which you could donate toward saving even more children.
If you’re donating sperm, you can potentially produce many more children than you could reasonably support as a caregiver (Cryos, apparently the world’s largest sperm bank, claims that the “average donor” can expect to father 25 children), but due to slightly more stringent screening, the difference between the quality of your sperm and the average donor’s might be a bit less stark. That said, most banks seem to care about things like education and height, which aren’t necessarily great proxies for the things most of us care about.
So, assuming you’re accepted as a donor and you actually follow through on donating a substantial amount of money, you can with near certainty cause many more children to reach adulthood than you could possibly raise and likely cause a few (or more) children to be born with your genes. All with a substantially lower time investment than you’d expect to sacrifice for child-rearing.