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A Russian IVF clinic is offering women the opportunity to undergo free fertilization. The catch? They have to be willing to be inseminated with the sperm of Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the semi-encrypted chat platform Telegram.
“You can undergo the procedure of in vitro fertilization (IVF) absolutely free of charge, using donor sperm from Pavel Durov, one of the most famous and successful entrepreneurs of our time,” the AltraVita IVF clinic, based in Moscow, recently announced on its website. Interested women who are no older than 37 should call or email the clinic, the site says, noting that there are a limited “number of slots” available for this special offer.
Durov’s obsession with his own jizz has been well-known for a while. The tech CEO has previously stated that he has already “fathered” over 100 children in 12 different countries through his various jizz giveaways. He has said he eventually plans to “open source” his DNA so that all of his various wayward children can find him.
The AltraVita clinic’s website (which boasts that it is the only cryobank with “the exclusive right to store and use biomaterial of Pavel Durov”) hilariously features a stock image of a woman apparently overjoyed by the fact that she gets to inject Durov’s spunk into her ovaries:
© Altravita IVF/screenshot From a financial standpoint, what AltraVita is offering may actually be a pretty good deal. IVF can be really expensive, and even after women have spent tens of thousands of dollars, the procedure doesn’t always work (in fact, studies have shown its success rate can be minimal). The clinic states that Durov will pay for “all the IVF protocols that use his sperm.” The obvious catch, however, is that, after the financing is taken care of, you then have to grow a tiny version of Pavel Durov in your womb, give birth to it, and then…you know, look after it forever.
You could see why that might be a bit of a bummer for some women. While it’s true that Durov is a very successful (and, presumably, smart) tech executive, he’s also the creator of a platform that has been accused of being a hub for criminals, nazis, sexual predators, and terrorists. In August, the Russian-born tech executive was arrested in Paris, after allegations circulated that he had allowed criminal activity to flourish on his platform. Durov was ultimately released on $5.5 million bail, while an investigation into his activity is ongoing.
Gizmodo reached out to AltraVita for comment.
It’s hard not to see this as part of a broader trend, which is Silicon Valley billionaires’ weird, unfortunate obsession with longevity. Whether it entails investing in new technologies to expand their personal lifespan or disseminating their jizz to hundreds of women or, in Elon Musk’s case, having children with whichever able-bodied woman is in the same room with him, the tech industry’s ubermensch clearly believe their genetic material deserves to live forever, and are willing to go to whatever lengths they can to ensure that happens.
