The genius sperm bank.

Robert Klark Graham, millionaire optometrist, became concerned about a 'genetic crisis' in which genius genes were becoming rare and the US population was suffering as a result. Classing himself apart from eugenicists of the past, he planned to collect the sperm of genius men and make it available to clever women in order to bring thousands of geniuses into the world, fathered by some of the world's most brilliant minds. He called his 'sperm bank,' set up in 1980 in an underground bunker on his family estate in San Diego, a 'repository for germinal choice' - it contained 'donations' from, among others, Nobel Laureates. Here, we hear his story in his own words as well as from the perspective of donors to his sperm bank and those who have received sperm donations from him. Artist Julianna McKillop worked at the sperm bank between 1980-5 and describes how many callers they had and, in comparison, how little donations they had on offer. The first successful pregnancy received bad press as the family who had given birth to the child had a criminal record. But the second birth, to Dr. Afton Blake, was a boy called Doran who fulfilled all Graham's expectations and demand for donations from his Repository grew enormously. 217 children were born from genius sperm but when Graham, aged 90, died the sperm bank did not continue. The Programme ends with brief interviews with some of the 'genius' children born from Graham's Repository, including among them the Repository's 'poster baby' Doran Blake.