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The Forum > General Discussion > Donor Conception

Donor Conception

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There are thousands of people in Australia who were conceived using donated gametes (sperm, eggs or embryos). This practice has been going on in Australia for over 6 decades.

Some states of Australia (Victoria & WA) have legislated so that those conceived in recent years have a legal right to know who their donors are and an opportunity to know if they have siblings created from the same donor.

Those born in states that do not have legislation or those born before legislation was enacted have no rights to any information. This knowledge is essential to the creation of a proper identity and knowing who the donor is may also allow donor conceived people access to a full medical history.

Adopted people in Australia have the right to know who their birth parents are even though in some states birth parents were legally promised anonymity many years ago. Governments decided that this needed to be changed “in the best interests of the child” and so enacted legislation which gave all adoptees the right to know the identity of their birth parents if this information still existed.

The situation is very different for donor conceived people even though donors in Australia have never been guaranteed anonymity by law.

Victoria which ended donor anonymity in 1998 found that they actually had more donors the year after they started using only identifiable donors.

There is a petition which will be presented to the federal Government which asks that discrimination based on when or where a person was conceived be stopped and that all donor conceived people be given the same rights as adopted people in accessing information about their biological heritage.

You can sign the petition online at www.dcsg.org.au
Posted by possum56, Saturday, 31 January 2009 4:27:27 PM
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*Adopted people in Australia have the right to know who their birth parents are even though in some states birth parents were legally promised anonymity many years ago. Governments decided that this needed to be changed “in the best interests of the child” and so enacted legislation which gave all adoptees the right to know the identity of their birth parents if this information still existed.*

Dear possum56,
Only to the point of being able to ask if they would like contact.
The other party can then say yes - or no.
If its no then its no- and no other private information is given out what so ever.

They cannot for example disclose the persons contact details with written consent.

That is the law.
Posted by People Against Live Exports & Intensive Farming, Sunday, 8 February 2009 11:24:16 AM
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More to the point, people have the right to question their ancestry where there may be a family history of hereditary diseases, or other medical issues are at stake. If I were at risk of degenerative or other diseases, I would want to know about it. These should be notifiable as other diseases are.

Nicky
Posted by Nicky, Sunday, 8 February 2009 7:18:19 PM
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