An Ethical Examination of Donor Anonymity and a Defence of a Legal Ban on Anonymous Donation and the Establishment of a Central Register

Many if not most sperm donors in the early years of IVF donated under conditions of anonymity. There is, however, a growing awareness of the ethical cost of withholding identifying parental information from donor children. Today, anonymous donation is illegal in many jurisdictions, and some jurisdictions have gone as far as retrospectively invalidating contracts whereby donors were guaranteed anonymity. This article provides a critical evaluation of the ethics and legality of anonymous donation. We defend Australian and British legislation that has outlawed donor anonymity, and we argue for the establishment of a central registry that provides donor children with the ability to easily and reliably access identifying information about their donor parents.

Attitudes of sperm donors towards offspring, identity release and extended genetic screening

RESEARCH QUESTION

What is sperm donors' attitude towards offspring, anonymity and extended genetic screening?

DESIGN

An online questionnaire for sperm donors was administered at Cryos International in the USA and Denmark between 9 and 30 September 2020. A total of 233 donors (37 in the USA and 196 in Denmark) completed the questionnaire. This study is unique because it was performed in a setting that allows donors to choose to be either ID-release or non-ID-release donors.

RESULTS

Most donors had two motives to donate: helping childless people and/or financial compensation. ID-release donors differed significantly from non-ID-release donors in numerous aspects of the donation, including relationships with the offspring, information sharing with others and wanting information about offspring. In general, donors had a very positive attitude towards genetic testing and extended genetic screening.

CONCLUSIONS

Offering the possibility for donors to be either ID-release or non-ID-release allows more donors to be recruited than if only one option were available. The multiple differences between the two donor types suggests that these are groups with profoundly different attitudes towards donation. The general attitude of donors towards genetic testing and expanded genetic screening is very positive but further studies on the attitude of candidate donors are needed.

Advances in Medically-assisted procreation technologies: can malpractice claims and "reproductive damage" be identified

Medically assisted procreation and assisted reproductive techniques have made giant strides over the past decades, enabling countless couples to achieve parenthood. Still, the ethical and moral concerns that have come to the fore as a result of ART's rise pose a multi-faceted issue that lawmakers have struggled to keep up with; procedures such as heterologous fertilization are strictly regulated, and even banned, in several nations around the globe, among which Italy, where a controversial piece of legislation was passed in 2004; such a reform has been partly nullified by court decisions, among which the Italian Constitutional Court and even the European Court of Human Rights. Relevant scientific articles were identified from Medline, Cochrane Central, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, EMBASE and Google Scholar, through February 2020, by using the following keywords: "assisted reproductive techniques", "heterologous fertilization", "European rulings on ART", "reproductive damages". The rise of ART has laid bare a shortage of adequate legal tools for the purpose of guaranteeing the exercise of reproductive rights for all. Hence, the harmonization of regulations, at least at the European level, is greatly needed in order to ensure equality of parental opportunities for all.