Sperm bank

Seed banks exist both in human medicine and in livestock and crop production.

• Means, in which sperm are frozen and stored in order to use them at a later time for in vitro fertilization.
• The numerous seeds libraries in plant breeding, stored in plant seeds under optimal conditions and thus secured for the future.
• The naturally in the soil keimungsfähigen plant seeds. These are called with the involvement of spore plants and eg bulbils also diaspore bank.

Human Medicine

A so-called sperm bank mediates in the medical area ( capable of fertilization ) sperm to couples with fertility problems so far. The sperm are collected in the seed bank, stored and retrieved at any time. According to a judgment of the Oberlandesgericht Hamm have to know the name of the sperm donor children conceived in this way a right to it.

Since 1986 in Germany sperm donation a legal treatment method of artificial insemination. Seed banks in Germany are obliged to pay attention to the qualification of the sperm donor. The quality depends, among other factors relevant decisions of the German legislation. In Germany currently governs the Embryo Protection Act as amended in 1991 and the guidelines of the German Medical Association all matters for artificial insemination. From this we can see that certain conditions are necessary for ethical and legal reasons, to perform artificial insemination allowed.

While the guidelines of the German Medical Association establish legally binding criteria, but represent the part of the professional code of physicians, the Embryo Protection Act is mandatory rechtlicherseits be observed as a federal law of seed banks.

Rainbow Family

Very controversial is the requirement contained not in the Embryo Protection Act, but in a 2006 revised Directive the German Medical Association on marital status that only married couples or heterosexual couples should have access to a sperm bank in an established partnership. In particular, lesbian, civilly married couples request access to artificial insemination, as is allowed in several neighboring EU countries.

Veterinary Medicine

In veterinary medicine, the genetic material for artificial insemination is stored mainly in the livestock breeding in the seed banks.

Plant breeding

In plant breeding, seed banks are used to secure the genetic material of plant species. In Germany, a large number of different seed libraries. The World Trust Fund for crop diversity has built in Norway, the Svalbard seed bank, which is the first and only global seed bank.