The Anonymous Sperm Donor No Longer - New Hampshire Public Radio 3/9/10

As a person whose parents used an "anonymous sperm donor" to conceive me, I very much appreciated the respectful, sensitive way Wendy and Rachel interchanged the words "sperm donor" with "biological father".

New Hampshire Public Radio
Word of Mouth
Listen to (THIS EXCELLENT) radio broadcast here: http://www.nhpr.org/node/31464

The Anonymous Sperm Donor No Longer
By Abby Goldstein on Tuesday, March 9, 2010.

"Each year in the US, thousands of men donate their sperm to one of the country’s many sperm banks. Many of them prefer to make their donations anonymously. But in recent years, more and more families and children of sperm donors have begun tracking down their biological fathers, much to the surprise and, sometimes, horror of the previously-thought anonymous donor.

Through online databases and genetic testing, children have discovered siblings – in extreme cases by the hundreds – and identified common diseases in their genetic lineage.

Rachel Lehmann-Haupt investigated this phenomenon and wrote about it for slate.com. She’s also the author of the book, In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment and Motherhood. Wendy Kramer is the founder of donorsiblingregistry.com."

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Highlights from this interview:
- The DSR has done a large scale study on "donor conceived" offspring which shows that 84% of offspring (who have not met their "donors") want to be in contact.
- The Sperm Bank of California did a study 2 years ago that showed that over 80% of offspring are interested in finding out who their biological fathers are.
- Through "non-identifying" information, DNA testing and Google - there is no such thing as anonymity any more.
- Previously anonymous "donors" are now being found and contacted more and more frequently.
- Are "sperm donors" and/or even "egg donors" ready for that proverbial "knock on the door" by dozens, possibly even hundreds of their biological/genetic children? Are their wives, husbands, social children, parents, siblings etc. ready for this?
- And an ethical question to seriously ponder: Why does a "donor's" "right" to anonymity always trump a child's emotional, psychological, identity need to, not only know their genetic, ancestral and medical back ground but to have a meaningful relationship with their, genetic/biological kin/family? Whose "rights" trump whose? Yes, "donors" signed up for anonymity but their biological/genetic children never agreed to these so called "contracts".
- Perhaps it's time to move beyond the personal (me) "rights" mentality onto a do the right thing mentality? Perhaps?