Wanted: An IITian's sperm

Chennai: Desirous of having high IQ level progeny, a city-based couple have placed an online advertisement seeking a sperm donor preferably an IITian for artificial insemination for a compensation of Rs 20,000.

The couple in their advertisement have said that the ideal candidate for sperms "should be an IIT student, healthy, no bad habits, tall and fair, if possible."

Offering a compensation of Rs 20,000 for the donor and to relax a bit on the looks part if he happens to be the 'right person', the couple said that they intend to "start a family filled with love and prosperity."

The advertisement has shocked many students at the IIT-Madras with some describing it as 'insane and ridiculous'.

"This is insane. How can sperm from an IITian make any difference. Intelligence cannot be measured. You can only identify intelligence in a person, but one can not measure intelligence in a person by the institution he comes from," Jatin Mandawat, a second year of the department of metallurgical and materials engineering at IIT-M, said.

To Akash Jain (name changed) too, it sounds completely insane. "I think this is weird. This does not make any sense at all, as if all the students in IIT are excellent in studies. I don't know whether they will succeed on this, but on the face of it, it sounds completely weird to me," Alex, Bio Technology student at the IIT, said.

"This advertisement is ridiculous. I think IIT brand name is taken out of context here. May be genetics do play some role, but hard work makes a man intelligent. If they were right, Albert Einstein's relatives should be the brightest of all in the world. Excellence is mostly hard work," another student said, on condition of anonymity.

The ad said the sperm received will be used for invitro procedure and added reference was required, which will be verified.