From Hotel Rooms to Coffee Shops: New World of Online Sperm Donation

Jan. 13, 2012 — -- Like millions of couples, Beth and Richard are on a quest to have a baby. But unlike most, their labor of love is launching them on a cross-country odyssey that has been 10 years in the making. Their destination? A Maryland hotel room and an intimate encounter with a man they met on the Internet.

Their saga began when they discovered a vasectomy that Richard underwent years earlier could not be reversed. The news was unfortunate, but it did not deter them. They opened their home and hearts to more than 60 foster children through the years and even adopted two of the neediest. However, Beth, 33, told "20/20" that she still wants to give birth. "I sit around with my sisters and the rest of my family and they tell me about their experiences and I just want to know what does it feel like… to have that baby inside you."

The couple, who asked their last names be withheld, purchased sperm from sperm banks and tried artificial inseminations but after $14,000 and still no pregnancies, Beth was beginning to lose hope. Then she went on the Internet.

"After so many tries and spending so much money, I thought there's got to be a better way," she told "20/20." "I mean, people go on the Internet for sex, why can't I go on the Internet for sperm?"

She sat down at her computer and Googled "free sperm" and discovered an entire online universe devoted to free sperm donation. One of the sites she came across,FreeSpermDonorRegistry.com, offered profiles for men willing to donate sperm for free to thousands of women desperate to conceive.