Should all donors remain anonymous?
This is an interesting question that was posed to us by our lecturer last semester. My immediate thoughts were absolutely not. But with every good debate, I love to hear both sides of the argument, so I did a little more reading and research to educate myself a bit more on the subject. Currently, gamete donation ( egg and sperm donation ) is a topical subject in the EU as Belgium is moving to reform the donation anonymity to balance the rights of donors and donor-conceived people. Across the rest of Europe, there’s many different approaches to donor anonymity. France for example has a strict anonymous donor approach whereas the U.K. have banned anonymity.
I read an article published in the Human Reproduction Journal in 2009 that talked about the impact of keeping donor information anonymous on the donor-conceived individuals. The article highlighted what it was like for these families to track down other donor siblings, donor parents, donor grandparents and even just finding who they are and where they’re from. This is unfortunately the reality of anonymous donation, people are often left in the dark and have bare minimum information to use to find the answers they’re looking for. I can imagine the difficulties that individuals have not being able to find their donors. I myself am an extremely curious (and quite frankly nosey) person, I would need to know everything about the person with whom I share DNA. Where does my eye colour come from? Who can I blame for my self-perceived flaws and imperfections? Is there a gene or family history that I should be worried about? It’s a common feeling amongst people who are donor conceived- a struggle of identity. Anonymity definitely favours the donor over the donor-conceived person.
On the flip side of this, removing donor anonymity may deter people from donating. People have said that donor identification is “killing gamete donation”, that people are afraid of the repercussions of donation, the backlash of societal perceptions, the legal aspects and emotional pressures. There remains a social stigma with regards to donation, that it is perceived to be “ethically wrong” or doesn’t align with different cultures, which is fine. I believe people can have their own opinions on various subjects, however it bothers me when these opinions impact other people’s thoughts and actions. For example, if I wanted to donate my own eggs and my family had strong opinions against that, of course I would be put off doing it. That’s the beauty of having guaranteed anonymity, you don’t have to disclose to anyone what you’ve done. You’ll never have to sit through the uncomfortable conversations of people telling you there will be an offspring somewhere in the world you’ve never met, that they’ll come looking for you, that you’ll always be curious as to the kind of person they’ll become. Nobody would ever even know.
Although anonymity may sound great for some people, it’s not as straightforward. You run into the risk of bigger issues such as accidental incest. Now I know what you’re thinking, the possibilities of that are so slim. But think of a small country with a low population, small towns, one large clinic. The chances might be low but not zero. Not only is it awkward if people suddenly find out they’re married to their half-sibling or first cousin, but frankly it’s dangerous once you add children into the picture.
My question now though, is there even such thing as anonymity these days? With the uptake of DNA and gene testing in the likes of 23andMe and AncestryDNA at home kits, it’s nearly impossible to stay anonymous. Even if the donor is legally anonymous, there is nothing that can stop them or their families from being found through DNA matching. This whole structure of DNA matching just throws anonymous donation out the window. It allows for people who have donated anonymously to be faced with a conversation or confrontation they may never have prepared themselves for.
When we were first asked this question by our fabulous lecturer Kate, I said I was pro-choice of anonymity (which I definitely think I still am). I can see the positives and negatives to both sides. In my own opinion, I do think there are more pros to donor identification for all parties involved in the process of donation. I do think though the stigma and societal perceptions of gamete donation deter people from carrying out donations which is obviously really upsetting to see as there are so many amazing people out there waiting for their opportunity to become parents but rely on the generosity of donors to do so. Having a member of my own family in the LGBTQIA+ community, it upsets me to think that they may not have the opportunity to start a family via gamete donation because of the societal perceptions around it.
It’s definitely not a clear cut argument but I think the more society changes and the more education and discussion there is around gamete donation the better.
-Leah