巴西女性对美国精子的需求激增

With "jewel-tone eyes," blond hair and a "smattering of light freckles," Othello looks nothing like most Brazilians, the majority of whom are black or mixed-race.

奥赛罗金发碧眼，脸上点缀着几颗浅浅的雀斑。他这样的长相与大多为黑人或混血人种的巴西人截然不同。

Yet the "Caucasian" American cashier, described in those terms by the Seattle Sperm Bank and known as Donor 9601, is one of the sperm providers most often requested by wealthy Brazilian women importing the DNA of young U.S. men at unprecedented rates.

西雅图精子库对奥赛罗的标注是“高加索人种”，美国出纳员，“9601号捐赠者”。近年来，富有的巴西女性购买年轻美国男性DNA的热情空前高涨，奥赛罗正是她们最青睐的那类精子提供者之一。

Over the past seven years, human semen imports from the U.S. to Brazil have surged as more rich single women and lesbian couples select donors whose online profiles suggest they will yield light-complexioned and preferably blue-eyed children.

过去七年来，巴西从美国进口的男性精液数量激增，越来越多的富裕单身女性和女同性恋伴侣在网上浏览捐精者的资料，选择那些能让她们生出浅肤色、最好是蓝眼睛宝宝的捐精对象。

Brazil is one of the fastest-growing markets for imported semen in recent years, said Michelle Ottey, laboratory director of Virginia-based Fairfax Cryobank, a large distributor and the biggest exporter to Brazil.

位于弗吉尼亚州的费尔法克斯精子银行是一家大型分销机构，也是面向巴西最大的出口机构。实验室主任米歇尔·奥蒂表示，巴西是近年来精液进口量增长最快的市场之一。

More than 500 tubes of foreign semen frozen in liquid nitrogen arrived at Brazilian airports last year, officials and sperm-bank directors said, up from 16 in 2011. Complete data from Anvisa, Brazil's health-care regulator, isn't yet available for 2017.

巴西官员及精子库负责人表示，去年有500多管冷冻在液氮中的外国精液运抵巴西机场，2011年该数量仅为16管。巴西卫生保健监管机构Anvisa尚未公布2017年的完整数据。

U.S. sperm-bank directors said preferences like those of Brazilian purchasers hold across their global market.

美国精子库的管理人员们表示，巴西买家的这种偏好在全球市场都普遍存在。

"The vast majority of what we have and what we sell are the Caucasian blond-haired, blue-eyed donors," said Fredrik Andreasson, CFO of Seattle Sperm Bank, which provides about a quarter of Brazil's imports.

西雅图精子银行首席财务官弗雷德里克·安德雷森称：“我们存储并销售的精子，大部分来自金发碧眼的高加索人种捐赠者。”巴西进口精子的约四分之一来自该精子库。

Everyone wants a "pretty kid" and for many parents in Brazil, where prejudice often runs deep, that means "the white biotype—light-colored eyes and skin," said Susy Pommer, a 28-year-old data analyst from Sao Paulo who decided to get pregnant last year after a breast-cancer scare left her eager to raise a child right away with her partner, Priscilla.

在圣保罗工作的28岁数据分析师苏西·珀梅尔表示，每个人都想生个“漂亮宝宝”，而在种族偏见颇深的巴西，对于许多父母而言，漂亮宝宝就意味着“白种人--浅瞳色，白皮肤。”她去年一度怀疑自己患上了乳腺癌，被吓得不轻。随后就急切地想和伴侣普里西拉生个孩子，于是开始了备孕。

The preference for white donors reflects a persistent preoccupation with race in a country where social class and skin color correlate with glaring accuracy. More than 50% of Brazilians are black or mixed-race, a legacy of Brazil having imported more than 10 times as many African slaves than the U.S.; it was the last Western country to ban slavery, in 1888.

在巴西，社会阶层与肤色密切相关，而这种对白人捐精者的偏好正反映了巴西人对种族问题的长期成见。巴西的黑奴数量曾经是美国的10倍以上，这段历史的遗留产物就是，50%以上的巴西人是黑人或混血；巴西直至1888年才废除奴隶制，成为最后一个废除奴隶制的西方国家。

The descendants of white colonizers and immigrants -- many of whom were lured to Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the ruling elite explicitly sought to "whiten" the population -- control most of the country's political power and wealth.

19世纪末20世纪初，统治巴西的精英阶层为了“白化”当地人口，引诱了不少白人殖民者和移民来到巴西，如今，他们的后代掌握着巴西的大部分政治权力和财富。

In such a racially divided society, having fair-skinned offspring is often viewed as a way to provide a child with better prospects, from a higher salary to fairer treatment by the police.

在这样一个种族分裂的社会里，拥有一个肤色白皙的后代，往往意味着父母能为孩子提供一个更光明的未来：从更高的工资到警察更公平的对待。

Money is also a factor setting parameters for the DNA import boom. Carefully categorized and genetically vetted sperm from U.S. providers has to be procured from Brazilian fertility clinics at a cost of some $1,500 a vial, often as part of an in vitro fertilization procedure that costs roughly $7,000 an attempt.

金钱也是精子进口热潮的一个重要因素。巴西人必须通过巴西的生育诊所，才能以每小瓶1500美元的价格购买经过细致分类和基因检测的美国提供者的精子，这通常是体外受精手术的一部分，一次手术大约要花费7000美元。

Whites are more likely able to afford that in a country where about 80% of the richest 1% are white, according to Brazil's statistics agency.

巴西统计局的数据显示，全国最富有的1%人群中80%是白人，白人更有可能负担得起这样高昂的费用。