A Chicago sperm bank said earlier this week it had been overwhelmed by the response from US soldiers going to Iraq who have been offered a free storage service.
Dozens of soldiers have decided to take advantage of the offer to waive its usual 12-month storage fee of 200 dollars to cryogenically preserve healthy sperm in case they are exposed to biological or chemical weapons in any impending conflict, the clinic said.
"A lot of them are banking as a precautionary measure - just in case something happens to their fertility potential," AFP cited Mary Cappolillo, director of the University of Illinois andrology laboratory, as saying.
In most cases, the soldiers have been lead to the clinic by wives or girlfriends worried that the men might not be able to have healthy babies if they are exposed to toxic agents on the battlefield, Cappolillo said. (Albawaba.com)
