I know the law has been changing in this area over time. If you are a sperm donor
these days can your bio-kids track you down? Do they have the legal right to know your identity?
Bump
There are two movies coming out with the idea of the kids of a sperm donor tracking him down. I’m curious to what the law says on this.
In the UK, sperm donors have no parental rights or responsibilities, but the children they help make can find out who they are when they turn 18. The donors can’t look up the children, however.
This applies only to official donors from sperm banks where the insemination is done at a recognised facility - home-done turkey-baster jobs leave the donor at risk of being chased for child support and also give him the right to sue for access to the child.
I’m fairly sure it’s similar in the US, but perhaps not in all states, so someone else will hopefully give you an answer there.
Countries that have already ended donor anonymity include the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Switzerland, Austria and New Zealand. Canada and Australia seem likely to follow. It’s not retrospective though, so clinic donors that donated before the rules changed will remain anonymous. I think the only place where there are already donor-conceived adults with the legal right to find their donor is Victoria, Australia.
With the advent of large scale DNA testing though, it’s now possible for donor-conceived people (especially males) to trace their donors in some cases if any of the donor’s relatives (even very distant relatives) have ever uploaded their DNA. This case may have been the first:
No cite, but my understanding is that responsible US clinics tell the parties involved in assisted reproduction that it’s all confidential now, but that there’s no way of predicting whether and how the law will change in the future.
I was wondering–are any U.S. states preparing legislation to force sperm banks to divulge the identities of the donors for child support purposes? Would sperm banks simply destroy their records in order to keep the donors’ identities confidential?
Kansas hits up sperm donor for child support
However, state officials say they’re able to go after the donor as no doctor was involved.
Not that I’m aware of (the Kansas case is a unique matter). Indeed, the trend is in the opposite direction. Many states still have little or no legislation governing assisted reproduction, but those that do have tended to follow the Uniform Parentage Act and its predecessors, which expressly provide that “a donor is not the parent of a child conceived through assisted conception, unless the donor is the husband of the gestational mother.” Cite: Va. Code § 20-158.A.3 (emphasis added).
Are they required to give any family medical history at least? (And what’s the deal with the whole “Noble Prize winner sperm”? Is that just a scam?)
I’m sure that it varies all over the place. I had to give family medical history and some basic background information. Looking back, I am amazed how little they asked me and there was no requirement to prove anything.
Those kids are like 30 years old now and the clinic is long gone. I doubt that there is any way they can find me and I would be horrified if they did.
Obviously, the law on this could change over time. And, as more and more people conceived through sperm donation reach adulthood and want to know more about their background, genetic inheritance, etc, I expect the general tendency will be for the law to move in the direction of greater rights to have your genetic parents identity disclosed to you - much as has happened with respect to adoptions, I think.
I imagine that donors will still be protected against claims for child support. But could your genetic child find out who you are and want to meet you or know more about you? Yes, that’s very possible.
In the UK they are asked and that info is given to the recipient family, and the donors are also screened for all sorts of things. They are also allowed to help create a maximum of ten families - doesn’t matter how many children per family.
Don’t know about the Nobel prize winner stuff.
Agreed. Though I doubt very much that the change would be retrospective - laws rarely are, and when the law changed in the UK it certainly didn’t apply to children conceived beforehand.