It is a fundamental right for people to have the option to know who their biological relations are. I welcome a new wave of donor-conception transparency and hope that others, if they should wish to, are also able to enjoy positive experiences connecting with their donors, like I have. Opinions vary among the 70,000 people donor-conceived in the UK since 1991 we are an incredibly diverse group with varying and changing levels of interest in our donor origins and include people whose donor origins may still remain a secret to them. This marks a huge shift for the UK and one that is understandably contentious. This month, HFEA recommended updating the 33-year-old fertility law in the UK so that a donor’s right to anonymity be removed from birth for any donor-conceived person. And the dramatic rise in the use of DNA testing kits, like the one I used, alongside the development of alternative routes to track down genetic connections, such as social media and online forums, has now inspired a change in the law again. I was born in 2000 and I had always believed that my donor would remain a hidden figure, characterised only by the six pieces of information I was able to access from birth: height, skin colour, hair colour, eye colour, occupation and interests.īut now, complete donor anonymity is arguably a thing of the past technological advances have allowed a growing movement of donor-conceived people to search for their biological roots. I was born pre-2005, the year that marked a change in the law that allowed donor-conceived people who were born after 1 April 2005 to access identifiable information about their donors once they were 18. Before then, I had never allowed myself to consider knowing more about my donor. Paternal side.” I had found my sperm donor. When I received the results, I was stunned: “50% shared DNA, predicted relationship: parent/child. The news led me to take a DNA test on an ancestry website to see if I could track down other family members. When I was 16, I’d discovered from HFEA that I had 14 donor half-siblings born over a period of five years, but I was surprised to hear that some of them now wanted to be in touch.ĭespite initially feeling frogspawn-esque at this revelation, I found great belonging in my teenage years discovering donor connections. The subject line was “Information” and the sender was the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) writing to tell me I had two donor siblings who had registered their interest in meeting family members on an official website. Two years ago, I received a cryptic email from an unknown address that changed my life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |