A donor offspring, or donor conceived person, is conceived via the donation of
sperm (
sperm donation
Sperm donation is the provision by a man of his sperm with the intention that it be used in the artificial insemination or other 'fertility treatment' of a woman or women who are not his sexual partners in order that they may become pregnant by h ...
) or
ova
, abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...
(
egg donation
Egg donation is the process by which a woman donates eggs to enable another woman to conceive as part of an assisted reproduction treatment or for biomedical research. For assisted reproduction purposes, egg donation typically involves in vitro ...
), or both (either from two separate donors or from a couple).
For donor conceived people, the
biological parent
A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male ...
(s) who "donated" sperm or eggs (though most commonly "donors" are financially compensated so "donor", while the most common term is a misnomer) are not legally recognized as parents and do not appear on their birth certificate. In many countries it is common for donor conceived people to be given no identifying information about their donor, however in some countries anonymous sperm and/or egg donation has been made illegal due to concerns for the medical and emotional needs of donor conceived people. Even in cases with anonymous donors, donor conceived people are sometimes able to connect with biological parent(s) and/or half siblings conceived from the same donor using
DNA testing
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, o ...
or through online registries for donor conceived people.
With the significant increase in the numbers of donor-conceived individuals (38,910 live babies were born in 2005 as a result of 134,260
ART
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
cycles performed at reporting U.S. clinics in 2005, compared with 20,659 babies born as a result of 64,036 ART cycles in 1996), many have questioned the ethics surrounding the technologies and human decisions surrounding donor conception, and there has been plenty of controversy. For example, the term "
Snowflake baby" was coined in reference to unused frozen embryos (left over from other couples' attempts to conceive through in vitro fertilization) that have been "adopted" by families. Abortion opponents tend to support such adoptions.
"ART Cycles" are not accurate as many people (<40%) who use IVF (egg donation) do not report their births, and that there is no tracking or record keeping required for children born from sperm donation. Estimates of 30,000-60,000 often used are from estimates made with incomplete records from the mid 1980s.
Psychological and social
The psychological and social impacts of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) on donor-conceived children and their families has gained a great deal of interest in recent years as this population has continued to grow. An increasing number of family-support organizations strongly encourage parents to openly discuss their children's origins, whether through donor insemination or following treatment with donated gametes, because research suggest that donor conceived people who learn the nature of their conception at a young age do not suffer psychologically but that those who learn about their conception at a later age may feel lied to or betrayed.
For most sperm or egg recipients, the choice between
anonymous sperm or egg donor and a non-anonymous one is generally not of major importance.
For some donor conceived children, on the other hand, it may be psychologically burdensome not having the possibility of contacting or knowing almost nothing about the donor. Thus far, studies have found that a significant number of donor conceived children want information about their donor
[Telegraph.co.uk: Sperm donors should get cut-price IVF to tackle shortage](_blank)
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor in San Francisco. Last Updated: 4:12PM GMT 11 November 2008. This ref, in turn, cites Dr Joanna Sheib from the University of California Davis
Donor and sibling tracking
There are donor sibling registries matching genetic siblings and donors. However, with modern information technology, there are other ways of getting information.
One study estimated that approximately 67% of donor conceived children in
adolescence with an identity-release donor plan on contacting him when they are eighteen years old.
Registries
Donor registration facilitates donor conceived people,
sperm donor
Sperm donation is the provision by a man of his sperm with the intention that it be used in the artificial insemination or other 'fertility treatment' of a woman or women who are not his sexual partners in order that they may become pregnant by h ...
s, and
egg donor
Egg donation is the process by which a woman donates eggs to enable another woman to conceive as part of an assisted reproduction treatment or for biomedical research. For assisted reproduction purposes, egg donation typically involves in vitro ...
s establishing contact with genetic relatives. They are mostly used by donor conceived people to find genetic half-siblings from the same egg or sperm donor.
Some donors are non-anonymous, but most are anonymous, i.e. most donor conceived people don't know the identity of their donors. Still, they may be able to obtain unique donor numbers or known donor characteristics, e.g. hair, eye, and skin colors, from fertility clinics to find matched genetic half-siblings.
The largest donor registry is the
Donor Sibling Registry (DSR) however there are also many other registries and sometimes registries for siblings set up by the clinic themselves.
Clinics or sperm banks
Clinics and sperm banks facilitate the transaction that allows for prospective parents to become pregnant with donated gametes. They recruit and screen donors and advertise their product to prospective parents. Their position as a middleman is what makes anonymous sperm donation possible, though many clinics and sperm banks also offer non-anonymous donors, where donor conceived people may get the identity of their donors. The most common type of non-anonymous donor is an identity-release donor, which allows offspring to receive identifying information (such as name, phone number, and/or email address) upon their 18th birthday but there are also donors who share identifying information from the beginning. Identity release donors can have some issues, as the donor’s contact information may change between the donation and the child’s 18th birthday or the donor may pass away.
Many people fear that if anonymous donation is made illegal, the number of donors will decrease and there will not be enough supply however, an Australian study concluded that potential donors who would still be willing to donate without a guarantee of anonymity were not automatically more open to contact with offspring.
Most potential donors would be willing to meet offspring in a single contact.
[ In addition after anonymous donation was banned in the UK, donations actually increased
]
DNA testing
Due to the advent of genetic genealogy and DNA database
A DNA database or DNA databank is a database of DNA profiles which can be used in the analysis of genetic diseases, genetic fingerprinting for criminology, or genetic genealogy. DNA databases may be public or private, the largest ones being nat ...
s, even sperm donors who have not initiated contact through a registry are now increasingly being traced by their offspring. In the current era there can be no such thing as guaranteed anonymity as it is now possible for "anonymous" sperm donors to be identified by their offspring. Possibly the first such case was in 2005, when it was revealed in New Scientist magazine that a fifteen-year-old had used information from a DNA test and the Internet to identify and contact his sperm donor.
In 2018, it was reported that DNA testing has led to a significant increase in donor-conceived people finding their siblings and sperm donors.
Controversy
Within groups of donor conceived people there is controversy regarding the practice of donor conception and anonymity. Some donor conceived people feel frustrated with the circumstances of their conception, particularly if they were conceived anonymously, because they wish to learn more about their biological family but they find themselves without the means to do so. They may feel that their parents, who often chose donor conception over adoption because of desire for a biological connection, are hypocritical in choosing an anonymous donor and preventing them from connecting to biological relatives. On the other hand, some primarily feel grateful that donor conception allowed for their existence and are less interested in the biological family. And yet others don't consider it much or feel neutral. Overall however, most donor conceived people are at least somewhat interested in their biological family and believe that the fertility industry needs greater regulation.[{{Cite journal, last=Sabatello, first=Maya, date=September 2015, title=Regulating Gamete Donation in the U.S.: Ethical, Legal and Social Implications, journal=Laws, volume=4, issue=3, pages=352–376, doi=10.3390/laws4030352, issn=2075-471X, pmc=4572724, pmid=26388996, doi-access=free]
See also
*Egg donor
Egg donation is the process by which a woman donates eggs to enable another woman to conceive as part of an assisted reproduction treatment or for biomedical research. For assisted reproduction purposes, egg donation typically involves in vitro ...
*Sperm donation
Sperm donation is the provision by a man of his sperm with the intention that it be used in the artificial insemination or other 'fertility treatment' of a woman or women who are not his sexual partners in order that they may become pregnant by h ...
* Accidental incest
*Dibling A dibling, a portmanteau of donor sibling, or donor-conceived sibling, or donor-sperm sibling, is one of two or more individuals who are biologically connected through donated eggs or sperm. The term is not favored among some donor-conceived people ...
References
External links
Information for donor conceived people – UK Regulator
(Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority)
Family law
Human reproduction
Sperm donation
Fertility medicine
Donor conceived people