The artist who became a semen donor 30 years ago decided to meet all his children

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Mike Rubino is the father of at least 19 children. At least 19 children themselves wanted to meet Mike. Despite the fact that all the children treat their father quite well, they managed to meet all together for the first time only this year, when the eldest child turned 21 years old.

The fact is that Mike Rubino is the biological father of all these children, whose mothers used the services of a sperm bank several years ago. Calls and emails began to come to Mike a long time ago, but it was only now that it was possible to meet in person with everyone at once.

In fact, it is not uncommon for a sperm donor to father a large number of children. Sometimes the number of such "half" brothers and sisters reaches 200. However, in most cases, donors prefer to remain anonymous. Mike decided that he would only be glad to meet his children whenever it happened.

Artificial insemination is quite popular in the United States. Unfortunately, there is no exact data on how many women have used this service. But, for example, the approximate figure for 1988 is 30,000 babies born after in vitro fertilization with sperm bank material. It is believed that now the number has increased at least twice, but most likely this figure is much higher.

In the sperm bank, Mike was designated as Donor 929. "Mike is a great guy. He is exactly what they most often want to see a donor," - the director of the sperm bank comments on the situation. Indeed, Mike is in excellent health, has no genetic diseases, is not overweight, has blue eyes, a good education and is a creative person (Mike works as an artist.)

How it happened that Mike became a sperm donor, he tells himself. He got married in 1985, but when the couple wanted to have a child, they failed. After several years of unsuccessful attempts, they began attending support groups for infertile couples. It was there that Mike learned that the most common cause of infertility in families is the infertility of husbands.

As you might guess, in the case of Mike, there was no question of male infertility at all. "It was like a revelation to me," says Mike. After seeing a TV commercial for a California sperm bank, Mike made a decision. He talked to his wife, and decided to sign up for donors to help couples who cannot have children on their own.

When Mike applied to the bank, he had to fill out a lot of documents, one of which was to indicate whether he wanted to meet his children, if they themselves expressed such a desire. "I absolutely wanted to meet them," Mike says. "I thought it would be wonderful. I imagined these 18-year-olds knocking on my door and inviting them to have coffee with me."

Mike was paid $ 50 for each donation. "I was not going to be a real father to all these children, but I wanted to be a part of their gene pool."

Mike's marriage broke up in 1995. The artist still had no children, and by the age of 35 he also retired in a sperm bank - after 35 years, a man, according to the rules of the bank, can no longer be a donor. At least in most cases. However, when Mike was 37, he suddenly got a call from the bank because two women demanded his sperm, Donor 929. Age restrictions are lifted only in one case: if a woman asks for a specific donor after the first fertilization with his sperm was successful.

For that session, Mike received double payment ($ 100), but that was not the main thing. “Two requests from women meant that somewhere on this planet I have two children,” recalls Mike Rubino.

In 2004, Mike was directly contacted by two women - one from Massachusetts, the other from San Diego. Both wondered if he was the same Donor 929. One of them, Karen, invited him to meet her 6-year-old son Jake. Mike was introduced to the child as a family friend. “I instantly fell in love with this little one, - says Mike. - It was the best child in the world.”

A few years later, Mike met other children. 11 of them inherited blue eyes, four also became artists. Mike remembers everyone by name and calls them "my clan."

However, then, in the mid-2000s, Mike helped Karen, who was a single mother, with Jake's upbringing. They confessed to the child that Mike is not just a family friend, but is his father, which the guy was only happy about. First, the father took the boy for the weekend, then he began to spend the whole summer with him. When the child was already in middle school, Karen and Mike bought one house for two, dividing all costs in half. Each had his own bedroom and his own life, but Jake now had both parents nearby, under the same roof.

“It's easy with him, he always helps me, - says Jake of his father. - I know that the situation is not the most common, but in the end, they are my mom and dad.”

And so, in 2017, Mike finally met in person all of his children, who contacted him. He had never personally met some of them before, although he kept in touch with all of them via the Internet. "I thought I would meet two, maybe three," laughs Mike. He invited all the children to his house.

The youngest of them is 16 years old, and the oldest is 21. They were all very happy to see each other, as well as to see their own portraits on their father's fireplace. However, for many of them it is difficult to refer to Mike as "dad," but he does not insist. He is pleased that they came to see him, and that they are all such lovely and attractive young people.