Sperm donation for fertility issues has been common for some time and ovum donation has become increasingly accepted by women as well.

That leads to sociological questions about selection; everyone says they will love their kids no matter what, but given a book to choose from, what traits in a donor do people consider most important, beauty, intelligence or health?

It's been assumed that most parents pick someone who looks the most 'like' them but the sample sizes in the past were small. In a recent paper, Homero Flores, MD and coauthors from Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sina reviewed the requests of ovum donor recipients over a 5-year period (2008-2012) and assessed their preferences for donor traits, categorizing them by appearance, ethnicity, intellect, ability, and mental health. 

The authors documented statistically significant increases and decreases in the different categories over the years, with more "practical traits" that would improve offspring's overall quality of life tending to increase compared to "self-reflective" traits.

Statistical analyses were conducted by Cochran-Armitage trend tests with significance at p<0.05 and the authors found that the percentage of requests for “health” increased steadily from 50% in 2008 to 72% in 2012. The percentage of requests for “intelligence” were higher in 2012 (55%), increasing from 18% in 2008. Requests for “athletic ability” rose substantially, from 1% in 2008 to 17% in 2012. Recipients requested a “similar gene pool” most in 2009 (40%) and least in 2012 (25%), though that trend did not reach statistical significance.

Self-reflective traits, like beauty or similar genetics, became less important over time while general fitness traits like intelligence and physical competence became more desirable.

Citation: Flores Homero, Lee Joseph, Rodriguez-Purata Jorge, Witkin Georgia, Sandler Benjamin, and Copperman Alan B.. Journal of Women's Health. October 2014, 23(10): 830-833. doi:10.1089/jwh.2014.4792.