Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:51:20.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - Recipient Parents Using Do-It-Yourself Methods to Make Early Contact with Donor Relatives

Is There Still a Place for Law?

from Part I - ‘DIY’ Donor Linking: Issues and Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

By
Fiona Kelly
Edited by
Fiona Kelly ,
Deborah Dempsey  and
Adrienne Byrt
Fiona Kelly
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Victoria
Deborah Dempsey
Affiliation:
Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria
Adrienne Byrt
Affiliation:
Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria
Get access

Summary

Until recently, parents of donor-conceived children were told by doctors to keep their child’s conception story a secret. Over the past 20 years, however, attitudes towards openness have begun to shift. Australian law now supports identity disclosure when the child turns 18. However, only one state permits “early contact” between donors and their donor offspring. In the absence of legislative mechanisms for achieving early contact, some parents have taken donor linking into their own hands, using a variety of “do-it-yourself” techniques to identify donor relatives. Through interviews with Australian parents, this chapter explores motivations for, and the methods used by, parents to make early contact with their child’s donor relatives. It reflects on how the availability of new technologies has resulted in a relocation of power from fertility clinics to consumers, providing parents and their children with access to information to which they are not (yet) legally entitled.

Keywords

donor conceptionsingle mothers by choicedonor linkingearly contactlaw
Type
Chapter
Information
Donor-Linked Families in the Digital Age
Relatedness and Regulation
 , pp. 33 - 48
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allan, S. (2016). Donor Conception and the Search for Information: From Secrecy and Anonymity to Openness. Routledge.Google Scholar
Australian Broadcasting Company. (2015). The Donor Detectives, Background Briefing (available at: www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/the-donor-detectives/6996896).Google Scholar
Cosson, B., Dempsey, D., & Kelly, F. (2021). Secret shame – male infertility and donor conception in the wake of retrospective legislative change. Men and Masculinities, 25(2), 497–515.Google Scholar
Crawshaw, M., Daniels, K., Adams, D., Bourne, K., van Hooff, J. A. P., Kramer, W., … & Thorn, P. (2015). Emerging models for facilitating contact between people genetically related through donor conception: a preliminary analysis and discussion. Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online, 1(2), 71–80.Google Scholar
Dempsey, D., Kelly, F., Horsfall, B., Hammarberg, K., Bourne, K., & Johnson, L. (2019). Applications to statutory donor registers in Victoria, Australia: information sought and expectations of contact. Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online, 9, 28–36.Google Scholar
Dingle, S. (2021). Brave New Humans: The Dirty Truth behind the Fertility Industry. Hardie Grant Books.Google Scholar
Freeman, T., Zadeh, S., Smith, V., & Golombok, S. (2016). Disclosure of sperm donation: a comparison between solo mother and two-parent families with identifiable donors. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 33(5), 592–600.Google Scholar
Goldberg, A. E., & Scheib, J. E. (2015). Female-partnered and single women’s contact motivations and experiences with donor-linked families. Human Reproduction, 30(6), 1375–1385.Google Scholar
Golombok, S., & Wilkinson, S. (Eds.), (2016). Regulating Reproductive Donation. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harper, J. C., Kennett, D., & Reisel, D. (2016). The end of donor anonymity: how genetic testing is likely to drive anonymous gamete donation out of business. Human Reproduction, 31(6), 1135–1140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hertz, R., & Nelson, M. K. (2018). Random Families: Genetic Strangers, Sperm Donor Siblings, and the Creation of New Kin. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hertz, R., Nelson, M. K., & Kramer, W. (2013). Donor conceived offspring conceive of the donor: the relevance of age, awareness, and family form. Social Science & Medicine, 86, 52–65.Google Scholar
Kelly, F. J., & Dempsey, D. J. (2016). Experiences and motives of Australian single mothers by choice who make early contact with their child’s donor relatives. Medical Law Review, 24(4), 571–590.Google ScholarPubMed
Kelly, F., Dempsey, D., Power, J., Bourne, K., Hammarberg, K., & Johnson, L. (2019). From stranger to family or something in between: donor linking in an era of retrospective access to anonymous sperm donor records in Victoria, Australia. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 33(3), 277–297.Google Scholar
Kelly, F., Dempsey, D., & Frew, C. (2019). The donor-linking practices of Australian fertility clinics. Journal of Law and Medicine, 27(2), 355–368.Google Scholar
National Health and Medical Research Council. (2017). Ethical Guidelines on the Use of Assisted Reproductive Technology in Clinical Practice and Research.Google Scholar
Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority. (2018/19). Annual Report.Google Scholar
We Are Donor Conceived. (2020). 2020 Survey Report (available at: www.wearedonorconceived.com/2020-survey-top/2020-we-are-donor-conceived-survey/).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×