The results were not what anyone expected: Cindy’s boys were not related to the other children. As it turned out, the sperm bank had sold her sperm not from the man she had carefully selected, but from a completely different donor.

She discovered the identity of the man whose sperm she was given, and learned that his medical history was far from pristine. A grandmother had died of brain cancer at the age of 60, and a grandfather had suffered with Alzheimer’s. Another grandmother had died of heart disease.

“I felt like they tainted the gene pool for my kids,” Cindy said of the sperm bank. (She asked that her full name be withheld to protect the privacy of her children.)

“I didn’t choose someone who has a history of brain cancer in the family. I would never have chosen this donor. They should be ashamed to even have this donor on the website.”

There are no national statistics on the number of children born through artificial insemination each year, although some experts have estimated the number may be as high as 60,000. And no one tracks the number of people who find that the sperm they purchased is not from the donor they chose.