no. 290
"Kids Ignore Chance to Meet Donor Dads"
The Herald Sun
Kate Jones, Medical Reporter
November 06, 2006 12:00am
DESPITE new laws and a statewide advertising campaign, no Victorian children conceived by donor sperm have tried to find their biological parents.More than 100 young Victorians, who have turned or will turn 18 between July and December this year, are eligible under the new consent laws to apply for identifying information about their biological parents.
The laws came into effect on July 1. But so far, the Infertility Treatment Authority has yet to receive one application from a donor-conceived child.
ITA chief executive Louise Johnson said many children may not be aware they were conceived with the aid of a donor, "or the time may not be right for them," she said.
It is thought 30 to 50 per cent of donor-conceived children are not told about their true origins. Next year, more than 200 donor-conceived children will be eligible to contact their biological parents. Donors also have the right to apply for information about children. Providing there is consent, a donor and child may contact each other.
The ITA has received 10 applications from donors wanting to know details about offspring and 16 donors have voluntarily supplied their information.
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Note: I edited the spacing of the text and combined many single sentences into whole paragraphs to save space
I have to wonder if and how these stats will change for these same donor-conceived children over the years. I expect in the future the ITA will release stats in total and also based on the "class" year that these individuals could have first requested contact info.
what i find most interesting here is not that no dc people have requested info (because, let's face it, the true disclosure rate is more likely less than one in ten!)but that ten donors have actually requested to make contact with their children. who says we didn't care?
ReplyDeleteI think as time goes on that more and more may start making approaches. I doubt I would have done so at 18. As I've mentioned before my thoughts and desire to know didn't change until I had children of my own - I was 29. So it may take time before we start seeing the numbers of offspring seeking this information increase.
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