What should the child know

The Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) supports and popularizes in every possible way that after egg donation (sperm donation) parents ought to tell their children about the fact that they were born using donated gametes. The committee considers that disclosing to the offspring the fact of conception through egg donation, if possible, informing him or her about non-identifying characteristics of the donor addresses the interests of the child in the best way. In addition, in those cases when all parties come to an agreement it's advised to disclose personal data on the donor. The committee acknowledges though, that such decision is of exceptionally personal nature and that it can be made only by the parents themselves (Ethics Committee of American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 2004).

The Task Force on Ethics and Law of the European Society for Human Reproduction (ESHRE) proposes a procedure of “double track" (ESHRE Task Force on Ethics and Law, 2002). During this procedure a donor is provided with two options – to participate in the program either as an identifiable or as a totally anonymous donor. A recipient is also authorized to choose between an identifiable or totally anonymous donor. So, when selecting a donor, all preferences expressed by donors and recipients should be taken into consideration.

The situation when parents who conceived their child through egg donation (sperm donation) don't disclose this fact to the offspring isn't rare. According to a study, less than 15% of parents have shared this information with the child, and 40% haven't confided it even to close family members. Furthermore, if they had had to repeat the procedure again, 87% of all couples covered by the survey are reported to answer that they would not have told anyone (Klock and Maier, 1991).

According to the research conducted in 1980-1995 (Brewaeys, 1996), from 1 to 20% of parents planned to tell their child that they used donated gametes to conceive.

Sweden is the first country to adopt in 1984 the law authorizing children to get personal information on the sperm donor (Daniels and Lalos, 1995). A recent study in Sweden shows that 89% of parents haven't informed their children (Gottlieb et al., 2000). According to a survey in Belgium (Baetens et al, 2000), prior to the treatment, 43.1% of couples were going to keep from the offspring information about the offspring's origin, while 43.8% intended to tell it. 13.2% of patients experienced uncertainty regarding this question.

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