CYBERSPACE—The internet breeds strange stories, and spawns strange breeders. Case in point: Trent Arsenault, the Fremont, Calif.-based tech worker who has earned a cease-and-desist order (along with a threatened fine of $100,000) from the Food and Drug Administration because of his side gig as an unofficial and prolific sperm donor who meets his donees online. It seems the federal agency is miffed that his donations occur outside any sort of controlled environment.
Arsenault has hired a lawyer and is fighting back, and in the process has gotten a lot of support from people on the right and left of the political spectrum for his refusal to bow to The Man, but now, as these things always happen, news is leaking out that the tall, lanky blonde has some other sidelines, including making jerk-off videos for public consumption. So, he’s an exhibitionist. At least we can see for ourselves how fresh the sperm is.
But Arsenault is now being dubbed a “porn star” for having two accounts on the video upload site XTube.com, one under his TrentDog moniker and the other under TrentDogs’, and the news is filled with horror stories about the fate that befalls those who dare wear the mantle. Of course, it’s also fair to ask whether having a page or two on XTube makes someone an automatic porn star, even if they do garner a few million views, but even if it does not, it’s too late—once NBC News calls you a porn star, that’s it; you are one for all eternity. Welcome to the industry, Trent!
(Oh, just one other comment about the NBC News headline, One Man Sperm Donor Also a Porn Star. What other kinds are there? Two man sperm donors? Isn’t that called a DP? Now, One Man Sperm Bank Also a Porn Star makes sense as a headline, but he still would not be a real porn star!)
Anyhoo, back to the story at hand, or in hand or in cup, as the case may be. In this case, cup is the preferred receptacle, according to Fleshbot, which reports of Trent’s technique, “He saves it! Yes, after he jerks off, he takes out a little collection cup, like a doctor's office uses for a pee sample, and he collects every drop. What is he going to use it for? Is he going to study his fertility? Is he going to use his DNA to clone a copy of himself to fuck on camera? Is he just going to make $30 depositing at the sperm bank? We have no clue, but whatever TrentDog is up to with that yummy young load of his, we hope that it is for a good cause, like the betterment of all mankind or something.”
The above paragraph is editorial snark of a quality that I can only hope to produce one day, and probably never will, but neither am I interested in treating this story with a humor that belies the seriousness of Arsenault’s mission to help childless couples. Insisting that he is alcohol and drug free, and that he tests frequently for transmittable diseases, Arsenault has nonetheless become the poster child for private sperm donors, not because of his videos but because of his prolific production of sperm.
“During the past five years,” reported Reuters, “he has given his sperm on more than 328 occasions to at least 46 women, resulting in 14 births, according to the FDA's best estimates from documentation Arsenault himself provided. This, the agency maintains, poses a risk to public health.”
The article quotes FDA spokesperson Rita Chappelle as saying, “Under FDA's regulations, sperm donors are required to be screened for risk factors that may increase the chances of transmitting a communicable disease,” and adds, “Sperm banks must comply with precise requirements that include a battery of tests to ensure that the donated sperm does not carry human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B or C, syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, human T-lymphotropic virus, cytomegalovirus or various genetic disorders.”
Arsenault gets tested every six months, but is not able to afford the FDA-required tests that costs $1,700 and must be done within seven days of sperm donations. According to Reuters, the battle by the FDA to keep Arsenault from continuing with his mass donations is a test case to determine “the limits of the agency's authority to regulate private donations of sperm offered as gifts directly to prospective mothers rather than through commercial sperm banks.”
For Arsenault and others, the attempt to keep him down will itself put people in danger. "If you shut out the sperm donors, they are going to have to meet some bar dude," he said. "Spouses would have to cheat on each other."
AshleyMadison.com makes much the same claim. Maybe Arsenault can settle his differences with the feds and go to work for them.
Photo: Trent Arsenault, earlier this year, courtesy of trentdonor.org.
