3 Siblings Are All Fruit of Graham’s Bank : Reproduction: New York City mother sings praises of her children born of sperm from Germinal Choice.

Adrienne Ramm doesn’t understand all the philosophical fuss over Escondido’s controversial sperm bank.

All three of Ramm’s children came to her via liquid nitrogen tanks, containing the frozen sperm of two brilliant men that was shipped to her home in New York City from the Repository for Germinal Choice.

Several women have had two babies by Robert Graham’s sperm bank, but only Ramm has born three.

“I’m amazed by this generation that we’ve created,” she says of her three children: Leandra, 7; Courtney, 3, and Logan, 5 months.

“I think they’re a big plus for humanity. We’ve created something of value for the future.”

For Graham, founder of the sperm bank, this is the proof in the pudding to show that the sperm of scholars can create smarter, healthier babies.

Adrienne, a professional dancer, and David Ramm, a computer systems manager, had no problem buying into that notion. Married in 1975, the couple realized that he was infertile, and they began studying their options.

Adrienne’s mother saw the repository’s second baby, Doron Blake, featured on Phil Donahue’s television talk show with his mother, Afton Blake, and she couldn’t tell Adrienne fast enough.

“I thought, wow, that’s interesting,” Adrienne Ramm said.

The couple applied for sperm from the repository and reviewed the list of nine sperm donors and their traits.

“I was just amazed. They were all so fantastic,” Ramm said. “And I was struck by how they did this for no money and for no emotional attachment, but just to help an infertile couple.”

Since all the donors were characterized as brilliant and healthy, “I initially chose one who was most similar, physically, to my husband, and who enjoyed the same kinds of hobbies as my husband.”

The couple selected the donor known as “Purple.” His sperm was shipped to the couple’s doctor, who examined the sperm and found it dead. Graham apologized, saying Purple was a new donor and the bank had not yet processed his sperm correctly. Choose another, he suggested.

“I asked the repository what else they had, and they said ‘Clear’ could be sent next month. ‘Clear’ sounded fine. He was a science professor who taught at a major university. He was published, and also very athletic. He was very coordinated, had excellent manual dexterity, won in a college competition sport, had an easy-going personality, loved children, skiing and gardening.

“He had blond hair and blue eyes.

“He already had sired a baby, so I knew he was fertile, and he had children of his own.”

The next shipment was dispatched to the couple’s home on Roosevelt Island, a residential enclave in the East River off Manhattan.

The couple set the scene for the insemination: trained by their doctor, they performed the procedure themselves in their bedroom, with candles and music. “It was a very mystical kind of experience. We were chanting, and I really felt the presence of a spirit. It was a very amazing kind of experience, and I conceived that night.”

That was in November, 1983, and Leandra was born the following July.

When the couple decided to have a second child, sperm from “Clear” had been taken out of circulation because he had fathered 10 children by then--the repository’s limit to minimize the possibility of unwitting incest among its children.

The couple searched for another donor and quickly settled on Fuchsia, an Olympic gold medalist.

“He was very well-rounded, a personable and lovely man, well-traveled, a successful businessman, very intelligent, well-spoken, a beautiful demeanor. He sounded just great,” Ramm said.

When the couple decided to have yet a third child, they turned to Fuchsia again.

The baby boy is too young for his parents to draw many assessments, but the Ramms delight in the two older girls.

“The older girl just shines. Vibrates,” Adrienne Ramm said. “She’s filled with enthusiasm. Her whole aura is exuberant and happy. People are attracted to her, because of her charisma and energy.

“She has a fantastic imagination, is extremely creative and has written books and books of poetry. She puts on plays and shows, and wants to be an actress when she grows up.

“The younger one is much quieter, but very focused and calm and beautiful in every way. She’s exquisite, like a flower. She has deep feelings, and works all day on her art projects without needing my attention and without getting bored.

“She is extremely bright, writes her own numbers and letters and is sounding out words without any prompting by me,” said Ramm.

Ramm became pregnant with Logan when she was 41--older than the women the repository states it will help. She said she qualified for the third child because she already successfully carried the two earlier ones.

“Both (older) children are self-motivated,” she said. “We’ll give them the space to be themselves and fulfill their potential.

“Be sure to say that I don’t put pressure on them because they’re supposed to be geniuses. I don’t know what a genius is. I don’t even know my own IQ. I could care less.”

Ramm said Leandra learned that she was created through a sperm bank after an older friend mentioned that she had been fathered through a sperm bank. “Leandra wanted to know what a sperm bank was, and I was right there listening to them talk, so I said, ‘Golly, that’s what we did, too.’ Leandra was so happy to have something in common with her friend.”

Will there be a fourth sperm-bank baby?

“I’d love to have more, but my husband says we can’t afford it.”