ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
The process by which a woman is medically
impregnated using semen from her husband or
from a third-party donor.
Artificial insemination is employed in cases
of infertility or impotence, or as a means by
which an unmarried woman may become preg-
nant. The procedure, which has been used since
the 1940s, involves injecting collected semen
into the woman’s uterus and is performed under
a physician’s supervision.
Artificial insemination raises a number of
legal concerns. Most states’ laws provide that a
child born as a result of artificial insemination
using the husband’s sperm, referred to as AIH, is
presumed to be the husband’s legal child.When
a child is born after artificial insemination using
the sperm of a third-party donor, referred to as
AID, the law is less clear. Some states stipulate
that the child is presumed to be the legal child of
the mother and her husband, whereas others
leave open the possibility that the child could be
declared illegitimate.
Artificial insemination has grown in popu-
larity as infertility becomes more prevalent and
as more women opt to become single mothers.
Eighty thousand such procedures using donor
sperm are performed each year, resulting in the
births of thirty thousand babies. By 1990 artifi-
cial insemination was a $164 million industry
involving eleven thousand private physicians,
four hundred sperm banks, and more than two
