Do donor-conceived children have a right to know their origins? Vardit Ravitsky, of the University of Montreal, and Joanna E. Scheib, research director of The Sperm Bank of California in Berkeley, say that they do in a recent issue of Bioethics Forum.

It is not possible to get a completely accurate picture what donor-conceived children feel. Surveys of children who are looking for their sperm-donor fathers are affected by sample bias. On the other hand, most parents fail to tell their children if they are donor-conceived. This “creates an insurmountable limitation to the study sample in any research on the life experiences of donor offspring”.

However, nearly all surveys, imperfect as they are, indicate that most children would like more information about their biological father. Consequently, the authors have two suggestions for the regulation of donor gametes in the United States. First, the FDA should require records to be kept indefinitely by donor insemination programs, sperm banks, and fertility clinics. Second, a national register should be established to safeguard all information related to sperm and egg donation.

Ravitsky and Scheib know that there is little chance that the US will ban donor anonymity in the short term. But if ever the day comes, the information will exist in a central registry. ~ Bioethics Forum, July 20