People conceived via sperm donor
programs will have the right to find out the identity of
their parents through groundbreaking legislation.
A sperm donor register will be
established in NSW under draft legislation tabled in
State Parliament by Health Minister Morris Iemma.
The bill will mark an end to the
anonymity previously associated with sperm donations.
"Once they become adults, people
conceived through assisted reproductive techniques (ART)
will have the right to access identifying information
about their genetic heritage held on the register," Mr
Iemma said.
"But this will not operate
retrospectively. People in the past have donated on the
understanding that their identity would be kept
confidential and we will not betray that trust."
Other key proposals in the legislation to be debated
next year include:
-
Limiting the number of children that can be conceived
from one donor.
-
Setting time limits for the storage and use of sperm and
eggs.
-
Banning American-style commercial surrogacy.
Mr Iemma said ART were becoming
increasingly common and it was vital that legislation
kept pace with the new technology and community
expectations.
In Australia, around two in
every 100 pregnancies are a result of in-vitro
fertilisation (IVF).
"That's amazing when you
consider that the first IVF birth occurred in the UK in
1978 and that the third IVF pregnancy in the world
occurred here in Australia just over 20 years ago," Mr
Iemma said.
"There are myriad technical
issues which must now be addressed in NSW. Ethical
issues such as the preservation and use of sperm and
fertilised eggs also have to be addressed."
He said polls conducted by
The Australian Medical Journal showed that public
support for ART had increased over the past two decades.
Public support for IVF to help
infertile married couples increased from 77 per cent in
1981 to 86 per cent in 2001, while approval for IVF
procedures being supported by Medicare rose from 70 per
cent in 1981 to 79 per cent in 2000.
After Louise Brown, the world's
first test-tube baby, was born in 1978, the new birth
technology was accepted enthusiastically in Australia.
There was a brief drop in
support when highly vocal religious critics called for a
ban on IVF procedures, but public support has grown
steadily since.
The journal said that in its
1993 survey, conducted by Roy Morgan Research, 7 per
cent of lesbian women approved the use of donor sperm to
have children, with the approval rate reaching 31 per
cent in 2000.
Mr Iemma said the Government had
started public consultation on the legislation in 1997.
He called for further debate now the legislation was
published, saying: "This is a matter of great public
importance."
