ABSTRACT
Blankenhorn is head of the Institute for Family Values in Manhattan. While researching his new book, Fatherless America, he fielded many queries from journalists about the practice of selling sperm to single women. He said virtually every question came from Japanese or European reporters who were shocked that the United States is so casual about a free market in sperm. Somewhere between 3,000 and 6,500 fatherless babies are produced each year through artificial insemination. The abortion wars played a part, too. The sharp focus on women's rights and choice was inevitable, but part of the psychic fallout has been a tendency to downplay the role of the male, as if the father had no stake at all in the fate of the fetus or reproductive issues in general. Biological fatherhood was once understood by society to carry with it permanent moral obligations to the child.
