Mad Cow Madness

The U.S. now bans the importation of sperm from Europe. This is to stop the spread of Mad Cow disease. Even though Mad Cow has never been known to be travel by that route.

This has created trouble for some women. It seems that imports from Scandinavia were very popular here.

"I think it's outrageous," said Laura, a Los Angeles lawyer who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy. She decided against paying a New York woman more than $2,000 for a few vials from a donor she nicknamed "Sven," whom she used a few years ago to conceive a son. A vial usually costs less than $500. "I'd love to give him a full sibling. But I just couldn't do it. It's so unfortunate."

For some reason, I started wondering how Emily Dickinson would have tackled her plight.

She sought for Sven, fecund and blond,
Whose Babe she'd borne before.
She found their Child wondrous,
And wanted just one more.

But fear of bovine Pestilence
Stampeded through the land,
And vials of Viking DNA
Were soon - by Panic - banned.