FREE
DONOR OFFSPRING/PARENT REGISTRY
& FREE SEARCH PAGE

The ONLY TOTALLY FREE Worldwide Registry and Search
Website for Donor Offspring and Donor Parents
(Siblings also welcome to register)

IMPORTANT: Suggesting to clinic staff and/or doctor who performed the procedure that they refer searching Donor Offspring and Donor Parents to this Registry at DonorOffspringRegistry.com will increase "matches."

View the Online Registry
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Search Checklist
Links to More Online/Offline Resources

A Donor Offspring's search for his/her anonymous Donor Father (sperm donor) or Donor Mother (egg donor) is one of the most challenging. Today, Donor Parents are also searching for the Offspring they helped to create. Unlike adoptee searches which have possible resources within the system as well as around the system (we try any and all means in most searches) ... there are no resources for these searches. In a "worst case" scenario, some fertility clinics purposely mixed sperm of two or more donors so that the identity of the actual Donor would be unknown even to the doctor...But today, if even with multiple donors, DNA testing for paternity can determine who is a genetic match to your DNA....if Donors who were being used at that time are willing to be identified and provide a DNA test or are compelled by court order to do so. The good news is that many donor fathers are also searching and that there is a "starting point" -- including this website.

A special THANK YOU to CHRIS CHIPPS for keeping Spam from our Registry! Chris is mother of LIZ, her 19-year old donor-conceived daughter (If you're CLI Donor #1073 - contact CHRIS at last3digits@yahoo.com). While also checking our Registry daily for a possible "Match" in hope of finding some of her daughter's paternal relatives, CHRIS has found "matches" for others on our Registry that they didn't realize had occurred!

"This has been so gratifying that I'm 'addicted' and if there were a job where I could be paid enough to do this, I'd quit my current job in a heartbeat! "
- CHRIS CHIPPS (-:

How the "Conception Deception" Impacts the Children
by Lia Vandersant <liavandersant@yahoo.com.au>

My partner donated sperm when he was young and two years ago saw a picture of a young girl on the front page of a national newspaper (in Australia). She was the product of a sperm donation and was looking for her father. My partner recognized the profile as his and the picture of the young girl (then 20) as his daughter. She also has a brother from the same donor. There are three other daughters out there somewhere.

..... We believe the offspring are into denial because of the awesome loyalty and dependence these children feel towards their only parent (the mother).

When my partners donor daughter speaks out against DI she is invariably told that she is not grateful for her life and she must be experiencing deeper life problems and using DI as a scapegoat. The same arguments are hurled at us when we openly support her arguments.

This form of abuse acts as an effective 'gag' for any other donor offspring to come forward against the practice. Even the ones who are openly opposed to DI rarely post in our group since they are so emotionally battered by parents and donors who so vehemently support DI.

We are constantly being appealed to 'feel' for the plight of infertile couples who are being joined in droves by 'single mothers by choice' and the gay and lesbian couples who all believe they are entitled to the same 'rights' as 'fertile' people.

Our loss is your gain because adoption is not an option for these people since they claim that the selection criteria for adoption is too strict, adoption too expensive and the wait too long. DI is seen as a quick, easy and cheap 'fix'. They refuse to consider the cost to the child, their main argument being that because the baby is 'loved and wanted' the child will not miss knowing the other parent or half their family. Many donors use the high rates of paternity fraud as a good argument in favor of DI (go figure).

Having entered this arena I have learned a lot about adoption and fully support your stance against adoption. This is all a lucrative trade in human beings, too young and vulnerable to defend themselves, and every aspect of it should be banned.

I would say that right now we are about where you found yourself in the early 70's and I just wanted to let you know that you, your efforts, your website and the level of discussion are a real inspiration for us to continue with our efforts to ban DI.

"Out of 19 donor offspring surveyed, all 19 said they felt unloved."
-Australian survey, 2001

DONOR OFFSPRING ETHICS & FEELINGS
CBS-60 Minutes, August 22, 2000:

CBS-60 Minutes explored the ethics of today's infertility solutions by interviewing now-adult "designer babies"-- donor offspring whose donors had been selected for their IQ and talents.  They said the pressure of their parents' expectations that they would become like their anonymous fathers who they could not meet caused them to suppress any such inclinations instead.

What we're getting instead of reproduction is production and making babies consumer products according to the customer's shopping list of genetic traits.   Just one sperm bank in California reports production of 30,000 babies per year.

FAMILIES ON THE CUSP OF AN UNCHARTED REALM
Los Angeles Times, E-1, May 3, 2002
by Scott Harris

"As they approach 18, the children of women who patronized a pioneering sperm bank face the choice of learning their donor fathers' identities. .....The children born to women who have patronized the Sperm Bank of California since feminists founded it in Oakland in 1982 have been offered an unprecedented option:  disclosure of the donor's identity when the child crosses the legal threshold of adulthood.

The nonprofit sperm bank, founded primarily to help lesbians and single straight women to fulfill maternal goals, has helped the conception of more than 1,100 children.  Roughly four out of five clients have chosen the donor ID release option, officials say.

So far, three children who were conceived under the agreement have turned 18, one of whom has requested and received her father's identity.....Before the year is out, 15 other children of the bank's donors will turn 18.  Within three years, the total will approach 100...."

RULING IN SAN FRANCISCO DONOR OFFSPRING LAWSUIT
AP Story, August 24, 2000

"Anonymous sperm donors don't have unlimited right to privacy."  An 11 year old Santa Barbara girl, Brittany Johnson, a donor offspring with a kidney disorder, won the right to information from a California Cryobank about her donor father.  Her attorney was Walter Koontz and the attorney for the Cryobank/donor father was Gary Bostwich.

DONOR OFFSPRING LAWSUIT CITES STATISTICS
The Times (London),  May 18, 2002, Saturday
"Donor Children Demand to Know Genetic Parents"
     by Alexandra Frean Social Affairs Correspondent

A woman and a child who were conceived using sperm from anonymous donors will begin a High Court action next week to try to discover more about their genetic fathers.
        Joanna Rose, 28, a postgraduate student who lives in Brisbane, and a six-year old girl from York, will ask the court to order the establishment of a voluntary register of sperm and egg donors that would help tens of thousands of donor offspring to trace their genetic parents.
       Their lawyers are basing the case on Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, which guarantees the respect for private and family life, including the right to form a personal identity.
        They will argue that, without full knowledge of their genetic inheritance, people can never truly know who they are. They will also invoke the Act's anti-discrimi nation provision, Article 14, to argue that donor offspring should have the same rights as adopted children to trace their biological parents. Ms Rose, who was conceived by donor insemination in Britain, says that she and her half-brother have suffered an identity crisis because they know nothing about their real father.
       Joanne Sawyer, a lawyer for the civil rights organisation Liberty who is bringing the case, said she hoped that it would allow adults and children to obtain more informatio n about their genetic make-up and  background. "The law has to strike a balance between the rights of donor offspring and donors' rights to privacy," she said.
      Ms Sawyer emphasised that there was no intention to identify donors without their consent. She said  that creating a voluntary contact register was the only option left to thousands of donor offspring, like Ms Rose, who were conceived before proper records were kept.

All sperm and egg donors would be able voluntarily to enter their names on a central register with details of when and where they made the donation. Donor offspring could then check the register to find their genetic parent.
       Although donors would be free not to register, the experience of clinics in the Australian state of Victoria, where a similar scheme was set up in 1978, is that nearly all do.
       The action will also seek to force the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates and licenses fertility treatment, to collect and store a greater range of non-identifying information about donors than it now does.
        Under the present law, donor offspring born after the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act came into force are able to get only minimal details about the donor, such as height, hair colour and medical conditions that might be inherited. Children born before the Act have no rights to any data about the donor and, in many cases, records of their conception no longer exist.

Ms Sawyer said that donors should be required to update records with details of any medical conditions  they develop after donating their sperm or eggs. The register could also enable donor offspring who developed medical conditions to warn their genetic parents. Donors whose natural children developed a medical condition that required tissue donation might also benefit from being able to contact donor offspring to see whether they would donate blood or tissue.

Donors have no financial obligations towards their offspring.

ASSISTED CONCEPTION: THE FACTS
* An estimated 30,000 children have been born in Britain as a result of assisted conception, of whom 18,000 have been born since the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. The worldwide figure is about one million children.

* From the age of 16, donor offspring conceived after the 1990 Act can check with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority whether they are related to someone they want to marry. At 18 they can ask if they were conceived by means of donated egg or sperm.

* Many donor offspring have no idea that they were born as a result of assisted conception. Surveys from the 1980s showed that 75 per cent of such parents decide not to tell their children; more recent research from City University in London shows that the figure may have fallen to 25 per cent.

* The Department of Health is consulting on whether to remove donor anonymity. Submissions are requested by July 2002. The Government's response will be published in February 2003.

* Countries that have already removed donor anonymity are Sweden, Austria, The Netherlands and Switzerland. The state of Victoria and a clinic in California also allow offspring to trace donors.

* Research among donor offspring in California suggests that 85 per cent would like to trace their genetic parents at some point.

The case next week will decide whether the Human Rights Act is applicable. The remainder of the cases will not be considered until after the publication of the Government's consultation next year.

ADOPTSPEAK and EMBRYO ADOPTION
by Lori Carangelo

In "Now British Couples Can Adopt An Embryo" (Evening Standard, 10-20-03) http://www.thisislondon.com/news/ articles/7000761?source=Evening%20Standard
Mark Prigg reports that an American company, Snowflakes, based in Los Angeles, is providing unwanted embryos leftover from in vitro fertilizations to Britain for the first "embryo adoption service" by the end of 2003. JoAnn Eiman of Snowflakes revealed plans to launch the service worldwide.

As in all adoption parlance, embryo adoption relies on creative terminology. The child's parents become "donors" providing "gifts" of sperm and eggs through a "procedure" to dehumanize the child ("product"). Selling a product, or property, is a marketing concept that's easier for some to swallow than the less palatable reality that it's baby selling according to supply and demand of the marketplace.

UK Documentary on Searching for One's Biological Father/Mother
--Email sent to AmFOR on Tue, 22 Oct 2002 16:56:51 +0100

...I am a documentary filmmaker currently working on a series of programmes for a major UK channel on the subject of donor anonymity. The aim is to follow the efforts of those who are fighting to discover more about their biological origins. ...Next spring the UK Government will react to the high (supreme) court decision that the continuance of donor anonymity in the UK was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. I am very keen to speak with as many people as possible in order to understand the feelings and experiences of donor conceived offspring and their families.... Any other information about your efforts in the States and worldwide would also be greatly appreciated. Yours sincerely,

Patrick Holland, Series Producer, RDF Television, 1st Floor, Abingdon House
Kensington Village, London W14 8TS; Tel- 020 77 517330; Fax- 020 77 517301
E-mail- patrick.holland@rdfmedia.com

IVF EGG DONORS 'RISKING THEIR HEALTH'
Experts call for a ban on donations from strangers by Diane Allen, DianeAllen@InfertilityNetwork.org

"Experts called on [UK] regulators to reconsider the case for women anonymously donating their genetic material, given the health risks they may face in later life. A proposal to outlaw such altruistic donations was made by an eminent group of clinicians who suggest that it is neither ethically nor medically sound to allow women to donate their eggs. 'The long-term risks are poorly understood, and as the donor has no therapeutic or pecuniary benefit in risk taking, the practice of altruistic egg donation may become ethically suspect. We can't ignore the fact that it carries risks. Firstly, there is the general anaesthetic when the eggs are collected. Secondly, we don't yet know what the long-term cancer risks are for women whose ovaries have been stimulated in this way."

Complete story: http://www.observer.co.uk/ uk_news/story/0,6903,892004,00.html

U.K. ADULT ADOPTEES HAVE "RIGHT TO KNOW,"
U.K. DONOR OFFSPRING MAY SOON HAVE SAME RIGHT; Follow Link to Article and Hear BBC Radio Debate Online

Under the Children's Act in the United Kingdom, children's interests are paramount. In the U.K., adult adoptees are permitted their true birth certificates but over 30,000 donor offspring in the U.K. are not permitted disclosure as to the identity of their donor parent. Worldwide, it is estimated that less that only 25% of donor offspring have even been informed that they have a donor parent. The basic ethical and legal issues, which are also of enormous interest to American adoptees as well as American donor offspring, concerns the right not to be deceived or deprived of essential information about one's own history and "using" a child for the ends of the parents to conceal infertility. The following link will take you to "Should Sperm Donors Be Identified?" and a previous BBC radio broadcast of an excellent debate that you can hear on your computer, by a panel of eloquent children's rights activists including an attorney who is, himself, a donor offspring-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/ thecommission_20020925.shtml

WEB OF CONCEPTION
by Gail Schmoller Philbin
Chicago Tribune - 8-20-03
http://www.chicagotribune.com/ features/women/ chi-0308200005aug20,1,3059302.story

Couples turning to Internet sites to secure donated sperm. "People like to buy educated sperm," said Dr. Joanne Kaminski, director of Midwest Sperm Bank, who likens the search for the right sperm to shopping for a new car.


For extensive stats about Donor Offspring, CLICK HERE

SEARCH CHECKLIST
for Donor Offspring & Donor Parents

STARTING POINT FOR DONOR OFFSPRING.: What records or information do your parents have? Or have you ever tried asking? If a fertility clinic or hospital was involved, rather than just a private physician, they would have had some sort of contract. They would know what doctor assisted the artificial insemination or egg donation. That's what you need first, the name and location of the clinic, hospital and/or doctor... and any description of the donor that may have been provided. Usually there is a donor number as well, which can be useful if two offspring from the same bank want to find out if they are half-siblings. If they your parents tell you they no longer have such records, ask them to just tell you the name and location of the clinic and/or doctor and would they help you obtain copies. If not, perhaps a close relative may know.

First browse FindLaw.com .... or ask your public library to do an online search or ask a local county law library to help you...to determine the current law about medical records disclosure in the subject state and also for donor disclosure in the state where you will be searching. Often a local library can get such info FAXed to them from out of state also...Ask the clinic, hospital or doctor if they now have a policy or procedure for waiving your confidentiality to enable contact with your Donor Parent. If not, request that your notarized statement waiving your confidentiality for the stated purpose be placed in your parents' file. If the clinic or doctor is out of business you need to find out what happened to their files which, by law in some states, must be stored somewhere for a specific period of time.

STARTING POINT FOR DONOR PARENTS: You know what clinic, hospital and/or doctor was involved. If they are still around, request their current policy and procedure for waiving your privacy and willingness to be contacted by any adult offspring you may have helped to create. If no procedure, ask that your notarized letter stating that you waive your confidentiality for the stated purpose be placed in the file of the parents of your offspring. If the clinic or doctor is no longer in business, find out what happened to those files.

HOSPITAL and PHYSICIAN RECORDS OF BIRTH: Do you know the name and location of the hospital where you were born (if not, ask, and also check your birth certificate for name of hospital and delivering physician). Request the "complete record on mother and newborn" including Admissions record, delivery room record, doctors' and nurses' notes, lab tests, discharge summary. DON'T say anything about being a donor child -- It's your record--ask for it as anyone would ask for their own record on the chance that there may be a notation about whoever performed the insemination procedure and where etc... If the hospital where you were born is also the hospital that did the donor procedure, try first approaching it as any other medical records request--It's your record too.....If a court order is required, a "medically urgent need" may help.

To obtain a court order, some courts will simply either grant or deny such requests that they receive by letter (no formal petition) but a hearing would be set and you must attend the hearing or request in the same letter to waive your appearance if out-of-state or be automatically denied.

Ask the court to appoint a "confidential intermediary" if the clinic or doctor cannot serve that purpose or will only do it that way. In other words, assume one or the other will be granted rather than asking if it "could" be done. See if you can get a free consultation with an attorney beforehand for ideas on how to proceed with or without a lawyer....You can always type a straight letter to a court--It doesn't have to be a formal petition--but you should find out ahead what to ask for....

This is a tricky one. If possible, have your mother request her complete medical record from her physician at the time...on the chance that the donor's name or some means of connecting her record with the donor's record is indicated.

DONOR OFFSPRING REGISTRIES: Register with any Donor Offspring registries that currently exist (SEE LINKS AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE) -- no matter how small a membership or in what countries--Registries get larger in time as word travels. Encourage others who are searching to register also. Find any related (adoption search etc) Message Boards, Forums and Chat lists such as at About.com, where other Donor Offspring may be posting. By posting your info all over the Net...it may "ring a bell" to someone...but at the very least, you will gain support (and search ideas) from others' experiences, perhaps with the same state and facility, for learning the name of the Donor Parent or Donor Offspring...

WHEN YOU HAVE THE NAME--HOW TO LOCATE THEM: You can locate anyone for free when you have the name (even if a common last name, if the first name is unusual) if they have a listed address/phone number on any of the online directories. The best one for same-name searches "by state" or in "all states" WhitePages.com ... Also browse FREE SEARCH TIPS and LINKS" at http://amfor.net/amforlinks.html.

DNA TESTING: When a Donor Offspring and Donor Parent believe they have found each other, a simple DNA test available at most labs can determine if you are biologically related..

ONLINE RESOURCES:

OFFLINE RESOURCES:

CANDACE TURNER
DONOR OFFSPRING
PO BOX 37
SARCOXIE, MO 64862

DONOR CONCEPTION
PO BOX 53
NSW 2198
AUSTRALIA

CARE LEAVERS OF AUSTRALIA
PO BOX 164
GEORGES HALL
NEW SOUTH WALES 2198
careleavers@hotmail.com

Care Leavers has several hundred parents and adult donor offspring registered-- in the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, NZ, Sweden, Japan, UK and Germany. There is a per-family membership fee. Their material includes interest in issues but doesn't specifically offer search help.


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Date Last Updated: April 21, 2008
© 2001, 2002 and forward by Lori Carangelo.
All Rights Reserved
PO Box 401, Palm Desert, CA 92261 USA