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The American Fertility Association Blog
Donor Registries…Has The Time Come?
October 21, 2007 - Sunday
Posted by Pamela
So...a big hot topic in the fertility community is whether or not there finally needs to be a donor registry....and the focus seems to be more on a donor sperm registry than a donor egg registry.
And right now there seems to be more questions than answers when it comes to establishing a donor sperm registry in the United States.
Some of the questions....
What is the registry meant to do? Supply medical information to the children and families of donor children....or social information about siblings and link the donors with the children when they come of age? Or both?
What about privacy issues of the donors...and the children?
Who is going to keep this information? Who is going to fund this?
Will the registry be voluntary or compulsory?
One thing is clear...at least to me...we need a better way of tracking donors....no sperm donor should have twenty five offspring...and I personally think that sperm donors should have exactly the same psychological screening as egg donors. And right now, in most sperm banks in this country they don’t. Why the distinction? A donor is a donor. Egg or sperm...wouldn’t you want your donor to have the same screening?
I would.
Part of the problem is that users of donor sperm...both the recipients and the doctors do not have to report the pregnancies...and you don’t even have to have a doctor’s note to order sperm at most sperm banks. You can simply order the sperm and self inseminate and then you never have to report to anyone whether a pregnancy occurs or not. With the current system in place...how is anyone supposed to keep track of how many offspring a donor produces? And what about psychological counseling about using donor sperm for the recipients? Is that happening in ob/gyn offices where much of the donor sperm is being used? Not very likely.
With egg donation, couples are counseled in fertility clinics about using donor gametes...who is counseling the recipients of donor sperm?
I think that we all need to care about this issue...and I would love to hear what you think! So post a comment...and let me know....lets start a conversation about this...right here....
In my email today came this...from the Infertility Network....
“Tonight in Canada a program will be airing called ”BRAVE NEW FAMILY”.
Science journalist Alison Motluk explores the creation of new types of families as a result of donor insemination.
You might not be able to tune in..but you can get it on line...but here is the programing information...Mon, Oct 22, 2007. 9:05-10:00pm.
In this program, Natalie Fokes, a single Vancouver woman, discusses how she chose her donor and why she longs to be a mother. We hear from a group of women who are spread out across the US but who all share the same donor. They tell us what a comfort it has been to connect with their children’s half-siblings and their moms, and to know their children are not alone in the world.
Danielle Pagano, from New York, describes finding and bonding with several half-siblings and her donor dad. A former sperm donor, Kirk Maxey, talks about meeting two of his donor-conceived offspring and explains the complications to donors’ families of doing so. Laura Shanner and others discuss anonymity.
‘Ideas’, CBC Radio One Heard throughout Canada and the northern United States on the 402 radio stations and transmitters of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada’s public broadcaster. Listen online: http://www.cbc.ca/radio (Click on 1 of 6 timezones. This is handy if you can’t listen to the program in your local time.) Also, these programs may also be available at a later date via podcast. Check at http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/podcast.html
‘Ideas’ is CBC Radio’s premier program of contemporary thought, with an audience of approximately 400,000 listeners. It explores social issues, culture and the arts, geopolitics, history, biography, science and technology, and the humanities. Most of the programs are documentaries in which thoughts are gathered, contexts explored, and connections made.”
So if you are interested...see if you can tune in....and lets be a part of this conversation. I am looking forward to reading your comments…
Until Tomorrow,
Pamela
Categories
Fertility •
Sperm Donation
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