Sperm! Identify yourself!

Last Thursday in Canada, the Supreme Court of British Columbia decided to effectively end the anonymity of sperm donors.

“By putting the well-being of children first and acknowledging the rights of donor-conceived individuals to know the identity of their donors, British Columbia is joining a respectable and growing list of jurisdictions that have banned donor anonymity in recent years. But unless they are told the truth about the circumstances of their conception by their parents, children will not be able to access to information that can be crucial for their health and psychological well-being,” explained bioethicist Dr. Vardit Ravitsky of the Faculty of Medicine at Universite de Montreal.

There was a comment by Dr. Alain Roy of the Faculty of Law: “…the court has assimilated the identity needs of children who were conceived through Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) with those who were adopted, in terms of both physical and psychological issues.” Dr. Roy went on to explain that in Canada an adopted child has the right to know the birth parents and this new ruling is consistent with that perspective. In fact, not to follow through would be discriminatory. All children have a right to know the source of their DNA.

It has yet to be seen how this ruling will impact ART generally or how it will be applied to the thousands of children already born with anonymously donated sperm.

Source: Universite de Montreal, MedicalNewsToday