Considerations for disclosure

Some specialists insist that couples who conceived a child through egg donation (ovum donation) or sperm donation must disclose this fact to their child when the child reaches a particular age (McGee et al., 2001). These experts suggest making disclosure in egg donation (ovum donation) or sperm donation a standard requirement within the framework of reproductive medicine in the near future. They base themselves mainly on the well-being and interests of the child. However, we don't have enough evidence to clarify where the above interests lie (Fernandez, 1996; Blyth and Cameron, 1998).

The Ethics committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in its publication "Informing offspring of their conception by gamete donation" (Ethics Committee of ASRME, 2004) puts forward many arguments in favor of disclosure in egg donation (ovum donation) and sperm donation. A principal reason is to seek for similarities to adoption.

To support this opinion the authors cite data of the survey, which was done in Great Britain, where it was shown that children searched for information on those whose appearance and habits they share in order to satisfy their own curiosity rather than to establish long-term relationships (Howe et al., 2000).

A tendency towards disclosure in adoption has had an effect on US laws. In a number of states the law allows adopted children to be familiarized with information on their biological parents even without the biological parents' consent (Samuels, 2001); other states empower biological parents to suppress disclosure of their personal data (Oregon Revised Statutes §432.240, 2001; Tennessee Code Annotated §36-1-127, 2001).

Supporters of disclosure claim that each human-being is fundamentally and almost lawfully interested in his or her own biological origin (Hahn and Craft-Rosenberg, 2002; McGee et al., 2001).

Examinations of adopted children also show that the need for knowing one's biological origin takes a central place in personal development and that non-disclosure may result in confusion and understated self-appraisal (Brodzinsky et al., 1998).

Supporters also claim that disclosure is an essential part of open and fair interaction with children. Among other things, disclosure helps avoiding secrecy in family life, which may create tension in relationships between those family members, who know about conception and those who don't (Snowden, 1990; Hahn and Craft-Rosenberg, 2002).

According to a number of studies, disclosure doesn't hurt the offspring (New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, 1998) and it may positively influence relationships between the parents and the child (Snowden, 1990; Golombok et al., 2002).

In Belgium, 60% of couples ready to tell the truth about conception through egg donation (ovum donation) to their children didn't see any reasons preventing them from doing so. These future parents didn't want to give birth to secrecy within their families. They supposed that conception through egg donation (ovum donation) would only assure the offspring that he was truly desired. In other cases parents let the child know the truth about egg donation (ovum donation) for the following reasons: too many people already knew about the treatment; if there were any genetic diseases, parents wanted to make the child believe that he avoided the risk of getting a hereditary disease; parents considered that the child had a right to know of his or her biological origin (Baetens et al, 2000).

In some respects people seem to have no uncertainty about whether to inform the offspring about egg donation (ovum donation) or not when the right time comes. For instance, a survey in Sweden revealed that 11% of couples had let their children know (Gottlieb et al., 2000) about the fact of using donor gametes.

Literature on the advantages and disadvantages of disclosing or non-disclosing to the child the fact of using egg donation (ovum donation) for his or her entrance to the world is mainly of pure theoretical value. We know nothing about remote results. According to some authors, neither candidness nor concealment as concerns the child had any negative effect on the child's development (Brewaeys, 1997; Giavazzi et al., 1996; Golombok et al., 1996).

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