In the UK, it is estimated around 13,500 fertility treatments per annum use donated eggs or sperm and the current law around releasing a sperm, egg or embryo donor’s personal information to people conceived from their donation changed in April 2005. Since then, any child who was conceived via sperm donation since can receive any information, such as their sperm donor’s ethnicity, at the age of 16, as long as the information does not reveal their identity. However, at the age of 18, you can access information such as the donor's name and birthplace to discover the donor's identity. Despite this, there are still debates as to whether this information should be accessible and whether sperm donors should remain anonymous or not within science and law.
The Argument For Donors to be Identified
A significant reason for donors to be identified is due to the potential identity crisis their anonymity would bring to the child conceived through the donation. In 2011, a DVD documentary called Anonymous Father’s Day presented the stories of children of mystery sperm donors; many were searching for information on their dad, and there were questions about whether such anonymous fatherhood should ever have been allowed because of the black hole it can leave in the lives of babies born as a result. This kind of effect is already happening due to how many donor babies were conceived before 2005, who are still wondering about who their ‘father’ really is. Therefore, if this probable psychological issue of feeling concerned about one’s identity has prevailed before, it is logical to agree with the law in place as it could eliminate the possibility of more identity crises occurring. Already, almost 14,000 donor babies are being born a year and the capability for this number to increase in the future is foreseeable, so the potential mental impacts could occur on a wide scale and therefore it would arguably be better to remove donor anonymity to avoid the problem it could cause.
Furthermore, there are various sperm donors themselves who agree with eroding their anonymity. In 2019, a donor, Andy Waters, claimed, “donor anonymity is dead” and considered that after he met his offspring, how important it would be for them to contact him, implying how valuable knowing a donor is. Also, some fathers want to be identified; a man who went by the ‘alias’ Louis hoped that his children would one day track him down, clearly suggesting how donors themselves are often not opposed to being ‘known’. As there are donors themselves that consequently agree with ridding their namelessness, it could be justified that the law in Britain is fair and that donors should be identified.
Concerns have also been raised due to whether the new law has hindered the amount of sperm donors in the UK, but statistics from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) article published in February 2019 showed there were 642 newly-registered sperm donors, which demonstrated a return to steady levels seen before a dip in 2015. Therefore, although many complain that donor levels have decreased following the 2005 Act, it is clear the identification of donors does not put any pressure on the amount of sperm donors available in the UK, making the law harmless and consequently not contradictory to the notion that sperm donors should be identifiable.
Additionally there have been concerns about post-identification responsibilities, particularly financial as there have been fears of issues being raised around child support, however this has generally been covered by the law to prevent such a scenario. A sperm donor who registers with a UK clinic and donates his sperm to unknown recipients will not be the legal father of any child conceived and he is fully protected from legal, financial and inheritance claims. This is more complicated though if a sperm donor donates via a clinic to someone he knows. He will not be the legal father if the couple he donated to are both legal parents, however if there is no second legal parent, he could be the legal father, depending on the particular circumstances, including paperwork signed at the clinic and what everyone intended about his role. In this situation, as long as the identity is known in a consensual manner, and all the financial issues are managed, there are possibly no reasons for why sperm donors should remain anonymous.
The Argument Against Donor Identification
Now the debates for donors' identity to remain open have been covered. There are a fair amount of arguments to refute that.
Many legal cases in the UK surrounding donation have occurred due to parental clashes relating to known sperm donors, despite laws already being in place. A 2013 case concerning sperm donors named Re G and Re Z (2013) is an example of this. Two men were biological fathers of children conceived using their sperm and born to women in civil partnership. They applied for leave under the Children Act 1989 (as by virtue of the HFEA 2008 they were not the legal fathers of the children and the court gave leave to two sperm donors) and this was granted on the basis of the ‘connection' they had with the children, even though the HFEA 2008 said (like other gamete donors) they were not to be treated as parents 'for any purpose'. If these legal issues have happened before due to knowing the donor, there is no valid explanation to suggest that these circumstances would not occur again, particularly now more children are being born via donors.
Sperm donors’ purpose was to increase the population and give many women a chance to have a child either on their own or with their partners who they could not reproduce with. However, due to the law since 2005, reports suggest the amount of sperm donors have been decreasing since. Dr Luciano Nardo (consultant gynaecologist) warned British clinics are increasingly reliant on sperm imported from Europe as demand exceeds supply in the UK and believes the 2005 law was responsible for this. His perspective has also been supported by statistics from the HFEA, where in a 2013 article it was revealed almost a third of new donor sperm registrations came from abroad - with most originating from the USA and Denmark. Hence, it is suitable to regard the law as leading to the UK relying on donors from other countries instead of increasing them within the UK implying it was better when donors were anonymous as they did not have to rely on other countries as much.
Debates that not knowing the donor of a child leads to issues such as identity crises are prominent but on the flip side, some offspring who knew about their donor had a worse wellbeing. In some studies done on children who did not discover the identity of their donors, there were no indications about these children having psychological problems suggesting there are no negative consequences in parent-child relationships or child development because of nondisclosure of the child's donor origin in the first place, deeming anonymity of donors to not pose a risk to a child’s wellbeing. Adding to this, a 2012 unbiased study conducted by T.Freeman and S.Golombok on children between 10-14 years who were conceived via sperm donation, found no significant differences between the psychological well-being of children who were told and those who were not told but disclosure was associated with less warm father-child relationships. Therefore, sperm donation could hinder paternal relationships despite sperm donors having no legal obligation to their donor child. Therefore, is it really worth disclosing the identity of a sperm donor if it waivers a chance of damaging a parental relationship, specifically, the paternal one?
Identified or Anonymous
There are numerous culminations both sides could produce but now it is up to you. Do identified donors have a negative or positive psychological effect on the offspring? Does the law hinder or aid sperm donor production in the UK? Was it a right step in British medicine? Many questions including these have been discussed from different stances leading to the ultimate one: should sperm donors remain identified or anonymous and that is still very difficult to answer. The conundrum this question brings is extremely confusing. A fraction of both sides have been debated for the topic of sperm donors but now, as a reader, it is up to you to decide, should sperm donors remain identified via the law since 2005, or go back to staying anonymous?
Lydia Chandy is a Year 12 student from Essex, aspiring to study law at university. For her A Levels, she is studying Government and Politics, History, Mathematics and Religious Studies. In terms of hobbies, she enjoy playing the piano and she also knows how to dance. In 6th form, she is part of the Debate Club, specifically, the Debate Club Committee and she is partaking in the UNIQ Summer School this year.
References
Bailii.org. 2013. S v D & E [2013] EWHC 134 (Fam) (31 January 2013). [online] https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2013/134.html [Accessed 10 April 2021].
Bentley, D., 2015. Father’s Day: How to find your sperm donor dad. [online] BirminghamLive. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/how-trace-sperm-donor-dad-9428556 [Accessed 9 April 2021].
Coparents.co.uk. n.d. The Facts You Need to Know About Sperm Donation. [online] : https://www.coparents.co.uk/blog/how-many-babies-are-born-using-a-sperm-donor/#:~:text=How%20Many%20Babies%20Are%20Being,egg%20donor%20births%20per%20year. [Accessed 9 April 2021].
Freeman, T. and Golombok, S., 2012. Donor insemination: a follow-up study of disclosure decisions, family relationships and child adjustment at adolescence. [online] Science Direct. : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1472648312001630 [Accessed 10 April 2021].
GOV.UK. n.d. Legal rights for egg and sperm donors. [online] : https://www.gov.uk/legal-rights-for-egg-and-sperm-donors#:~:text=If%20you%20use%20an%20unlicensed,your%20donation%20under%20UK%20law. [Accessed 10 April 2021].
Hfea.gov.uk. 2019. Trends in Egg and Sperm Donation. [online] : https://www.hfea.gov.uk/media/2808/trends-in-egg-and-sperm-donation-final.pdf [Accessed 10 April 2021].
Hfea.gov.uk. n.d. Rules around releasing donor information | Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. [online] : https://www.hfea.gov.uk/donation/donors/rules-around-releasing-donor-information/ [Accessed 8 April 2021].
Jones, C. and Elahi, A., 2019. Sperm donors should waive anonymity, fertility regulator says. [online] BBC News. :https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-50209261 [Accessed 9 April 2021].
Kamouni, S., 2016. Sperm donors 'should remain anonymous' to halt donations shortage, expert says. [online] The Sun.: https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2092394/sperm-donors-should-be-given-right-to-remain-anonymous-to-halt-chronic-shortage-of-donations-expert-says/ [Accessed 10 April 2021].
Ngalaw.co.uk. n.d. Parenthood after donor conception: sperm donors and co-parent fathers - NGA Law. [online] : https://www.ngalaw.co.uk/knowledge-centre/parenthood-after-donor-conception-sperm-donors-and-co-parent-fathers [Accessed 9 April 2021].
Pennings, G., 2017. Disclosure of donor conception, age of disclosure and the well-being of donor offspring. [online] Oxford Academic. :https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/32/5/969/3071421 [Accessed 10 April 2021].
Power, J., 2015. Secrets and lies: why donor-conceived children need to know their origins. [online] The Conversation. : https://theconversation.com/secrets-and-lies-why-donor-conceived-children-need-to-know-their-origins-44015 [Accessed 9 April 2021].
Usborne, S., 2018. ‘I thought – who will remember me?’: the man who fathered 200 children. [online] the Guardian. : https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/24/sperm-donor-man-who-fathered-200-children [Accessed 9 April 2021].
Comments