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Latest Surrogacy News
Sperm donor
website must close, says MP
April 16, 2004
The Australian
A
SOUTH Australian-based Internet site which connects
lesbian couples with sperm donors will be shut down
under proposed laws by Opposition MP Robert Brokenshire.
It comes as the website's founders - same-sex couple
Sally Ryan and Jenny Thompson - prepare for the birth of
their first child, due yesterday.
Mr Brokenshire says the
controversial website - which allows lesbian couples to
scan a database of more than 90 sperm donors and select
according to personal attributes - was "not on".
He will introduce a
Private Member's Bill to ban the website, and similar
future sites, when Parliament resumes next month.
"We have got to start
to get back to a focus on families and communities and
this website is working the wrong way," Mr Brokenshire
said yesterday.
"I respect the rights
of lesbians and gays, they are good people, however I
personally do not approve of an open sperm bank intended
to promote birth opportunities for non-heterosexual
couples.
"We are in enough
trouble as it is with our social fabric."
Mr Brokenshire is
angered the website - The Australian Sperm Donor
Registry - allows couples to select sperm donors based
on their personal attributes.
The registry lists a
profile of all potential donors, including sexual
preference, eye colour, height and education. It even
lists if the donor was a smoker.
"It is time we had the
debate before it gets too far," Mr Brokenshire said.
"I want to see what the
community has to say about the legislation."
At present, homosexual
couples are not permitted to use publicly funded
fertility centres in SA.
The Australian Sperm
Donor Registry bypasses these laws because it only
connects the donors with recipients - forcing potential
mothers to arrange insemination themselves.
Ms Thompson, who
started the registry with Ms Ryan almost a year ago,
said they had "matched up" about 70 recipients.
"We have heard from a
few of the donors that there have been some successes,"
Ms Thompson, 27, of Elizabeth Park, said yesterday.
"It has been quite
good. Most of the recipients seem quite happy with the
way things are working out.
"We haven't had any
problems."
The registry has
attracted about 90 donors - some of whom are homosexual
men. Most donors are Australian but Ms Ryan said men in
New Zealand and the United States had also registered.
Only three South Australian men had registered.
Lesbian Parenting SA
spokeswoman Di Whitaker-Lockwood said the website was
the only "safe" method for same-sex couples in SA to
find conception.
"The ultimate is to be
able to access IVF clinics - if we could do that we
would not have to worry about all this stuff," she said.
"Because we are not
allowed to we have to use other forms of conception."
Ms Thompson said the
website had recently started collecting information
about potential egg donors, with two women already
matched up. Eight more women had registered on the
waiting list for donor eggs.
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