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Latest Surrogacy News
Naming Names Is A Donor Handicap
January 22, 2004
IC Northern Ireland
A
FERTILITY expert has warned of a big fall in the number
of donors under plans to remove the right to anonymity
for people giving sperm, eggs and embryos.
Jenny
Hall, scientific director at Origin Fertility Care at
Belmont Road, said they had already postponed several
treatments due to a shortage of egg and sperm donors and
that removing the right to anonymity would make things
worse.
Ms
Hall was speaking as the Government announced that men
who father children through sperm donation are to lose
their right to anonymity.
The
changes, which will also apply to egg and embryo donors,
will come into force from April, 2005.
Although there are no facilities for sperm donation in
Ulster, Ms Hall said the legislation would have a
knock-on effect.
"My
concern is that the removal of anonymity will only
further the diminishing number of sperm donors," she
said.
"This
is already a problem with sperm being imported from
abroad.
"For
patients who make this choice, it is the only way they
can have a baby and there is a danger that, if we cannot
recruit donors, many infertile couples will be unable to
receive treatment.''
Dr
Neil McClure, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology
at Queen's University, believes that children conceived
this way have a right to information about their genetic
parents.
"It
is really important that a child should be able to find
out their medical history from a health point of view,''
he said.
"Several genetic illnesses can appear several years
after the strict screening process at donation, and it
is important for people to know if they are at risk of
any particular illness.''
Dr
McClure said that emotional-difficulties could arise if
a child wanted to trace a parent out of curiosity and a
parent did not have to make contact.
"This
new legislation does not give children the right to know
who their donor father is but the medical knowledge will
be very helpful.''
The
Government has been carrying out a two-year public
consultation on what information children conceived
using donor sperm, eggs or embryos should have access
to.
Under
a 1990 law, children can be told when they reach 18 if
they were conceived using donated egg, sperm or embryos
and 16-year-olds can ask whether they are related to
someone they want to marry.
The
regulations will now be extended, so that children can
find out more biological information about the donor
parent.
They
will be able to have 'pen portraits' of their parent.
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