Family Law

Anonymous Sperm Donors May Be Identified By Their (Many!) Offspring, Thanks To New Law

Some jurisdictions -- like this one -- are changing their laws, and banishing donor anonymity altogether.

By  
on

Donor reveal parties may be the new gender reveal parties. The days of the Delivery Man are upon us. The fictional comedy where a humble delivery driver discovers he is the genetic father of over a hundred children, thanks to donating sperm in his youth to make a little cash, is looking less fictional by the day. While promises of anonymity once made sperm and egg donations appealing to many, those promises are becoming impossible to keep. Aside from the practical and shockingly easy ways donor-conceived children are finding their donors — like commercial DNA tests, or the trusty ol’ internet — some jurisdictions are changing their laws, and banishing anonymity altogether.

Donors Down Under.

On March 1, 2017, the Australian state of Victoria (think where Melbourne is, and where the tiny penguins on Philip Island live) saw their anti-donor anonymity legislation become effective. While donor anonymity had not been permitted for sperm or egg donors since 1988, this law took knowing ones genetic parent to another level, by permitting the identification of even those donors prior to 1988, to be identified to their progeny.

Last week, the sweet story of one Victorian donor-conceived woman and her donor finding each other, and developing a positive relationship, brought to light the effect of the new law. The donor was surprised and nervous when he received a letter from the Victorian Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA) that a child had been born from his donation and she wished to contact him. The donor later inquired as to whether there were other persons conceived from his donations. There were. In fact, there were 15 others! So I hope they all get along!

Obviously though, not every donor wants to be found. And just because some meetings are going well doesn’t mean that they all will.

Donors In Hiding.

There is one small ray of hope for past donors not wanting to be found. Although they can’t stop their donor-conceived children from learning their identity, they can at least take steps to stop contact. Donors can specify that they do not wish to be contacted by their donor-conceived children and anyone breaking the no contact request can be fined $6,000 U.S. dollars (ironically, that’s about the approximate going rate for compensation as an egg donor in the United States). That’s over 8,000 AUD, which means contacting a parent who doesn’t want to be contacted will set you back a lot of Tim Tams.

Sponsored

Knowing Oneself. 

Like many legal changes, it took a compelling story to instigate the change.  In this case, it was that of Narelle Grech. At only 28, she was diagnosed with an advanced from or cancer, likely hereditary. Being donor-conceived, Grech was missing her genetic history and was unable to warn her biological father or the other eight children conceived from the same donor, that their health, and their lives, might also be at risk.

Grech provided emotional testimony, arguing that “[i]t’s really important to me now that I can know who my paternal family is. I want to be able to say that I really know myself before I die.” All five members of the state’s law reform committee went from opposing the new law, to supporting it.

I spoke to this column’s favorite assisted reproductive technology-specialized Aussie solicitor, Stephen Page, about these developments. “The then Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, as well as the current Chief, have both said that children have a right to know where they come from. There is nothing quite like meeting an adult who has a bar code on their neck as their only knowledge of their genetic origin that helps form such a view!” Wow. That’s a unique tattoo.

Page advises all of his clients turning to donor sperm or eggs to try to have either known or open identity donors. Otherwise, they run the risk of being blamed by their kids years later, as to making a choice about the child’s life, and denying the child the choice of finding out where they came from. Of course, with the current trajectory of increased knowledge of genetics and information sharing, that risk is going down by the day. It’s just a question of whether the donor ever wanted to be found.

Sponsored

Ellen TrachmanEllen Trachman is the Managing Attorney of Trachman Law Center, LLC, a Denver-based law firm specializing in assisted reproductive technology law, and co-host of the podcast I Want To Put A Baby In You. You can reach her at babies@abovethelaw.com.

Topics

, , , , ,