This week the Victorian government announced proposed changes to legislation, enabling all sperm donor children the right to access their genetic records, which includes personal information about their sperm donor fathers even if the donations were made anonymously.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Eden Magnet asked people on the street whether they thought sperm donor children should have this open access to information, and why.
Julianne Mattock
Nethercote
I don’t think donor children should have access to information. If someone donated sperm anonymously, they’ve tried to help someone by donating, and they shouldn’t lose their privacy and rights. In the 1970s you used to get $25 for donating sperm. (Donor children) already have their adoptive parents who want them and have raised them.
Michael Edwards
Nullica
I don’t think a child should even know they are a sperm donor child. The birth certificate would have them named with their adoptive parents names, and it should stay that way. I grew up ... as a ward of the state. State ward kids should have the right to know their parents.
Kathy Jay
Broulee
I think children should know their biological parents. They should know who their father is because the father might have had other children, so the donor children could discover brothers and sisters. These donor fathers have probably sired many children. I think it’s important for people to know if they have siblings, and to get together with them.
Bridget Whipp
Broulee
I have a friend who had a sperm donor child. The child was only told he was sperm donor conceived when he was a teenager. After that he didn’t want anything to do with his adoptive, non-biological father. So I think donor children should be told their history when they are still very young, and get the information they wish.
John Davey
Wales, UK
If you make an anonymous donation, it should be kept anonymous. If you donate and want your details available, then that’s up to the man. It then becomes the birth mother’s right to decide if the child should know or not. If you can’t preserve anonymity anymore, then less men will donate.
Gary Warren
Eden
Apart from the chance to say g’day, I think donor children need to have access to their fathers. Knowing your personal medical history is so important these days. It’s all the things the doctor asks you; if you have any hereditary diseases, such as cancer or a heart weakness or high cholesterol. If you know your father had prostate cancer, you know you have a higher likelihood.
Ellyse Benson
Bensville
If I was a sperm donor kid, I’d like to know who my dad is. I know my dad, and I do a lot with him, and it would be sad not to have that. If I was a sperm donor kid I’d like to know if my dad was alive, and if he’s healthy. I’d like to know where he lives and what he does (and) if I have siblings.