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Sperm-donor siblings finding each other

MARIETTA, Ga., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. sperm-donor siblings say they are finding each other with a little help from the Internet.

Two sets of twins on opposite sides of the United States, Jonah and Hilit Jacobson in Georgia and Jesse and Jayme Clapoff in California, are the biological offspring of sperm donor No. 1096. Fifteen years ago, sperm donation enabled their two mothers to give birth to the children they wanted, CNN reported.

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They were able to find each other partly from luck and partly because the two families had joined the Donor Sibling Registry online, where they found their donor siblings by searching for families with a matching donor number, CNN said.

Wendy Kramer, 51, who had her son Ryan in 1990 with donated sperm, created the Web site in 2000 because her son, at the time 10 years old, was curious if he had donor siblings.

"We realized there was no way to make mutual consent contact. There was no way for anyone to get in touch," Kramer told CNN. She eventually found her son's half sisters through the site, and the siblings recently spent the Fourth of July together.

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The CNN report said studies estimate 30,000 to 60,000 babies are born each year through donated sperm.

The largest sperm bank in the country, California Cryobank, said 60 percent of sperm-donor births are reported from the sperm it distributes, CNN reported.

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