The practice of donor conception has been used as a method of reproductive technology for decades in Australia. Indeed donor insemination may well have been used as early as the first decade of the 20th Century. It has been for the most part conducted in secrecy with donors remaining anonymous. The majority of parents maintained the secrecy suggested to them by medical practitioners by not telling their donor conceived children the truth about their parentage.

Now that we are in the early 21st Century, has anything changed? The answer is yes, but a very qualified yes.

Those children now being born from donor egg, sperm and embryos in the state of Victoria have the right to know the identity of their donor when they reach the age of 18 (see table below). But for every other person now being conceived or already born in Australia through donor conception there is no right to identifying information about their donor/s.

In those states that have no legislation regarding access to information clinics are expected to follow the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Ethical guidelines on assisted reproductive technology (1996).

Currently clinics in states where there is no legislation adher to the guidelines specified by RTAC - click here to go to their web site where you can download the guidelines.

The Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC), established by the Fertility Society of Australia in 1987, has expanded on the series of standards and associated explanatory notes.

These guidelines are to be observed by clinics or centres involved in the treatment of patients with ovulation induction, artificial insemination, IVF and related techniques such as gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) and all procedures involving donated gametes or embryos. Such clinics or centres are called Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) centres.

These guidelines are currently under review but state that records should be kept indefinitely and that “children born from the use of ART procedures are entitled to a knowledge of their biological parents.” According to the NHMRC this does not mean the right to know who their donors are.

There has been one case that I am aware of where a doctor has been prosecuted at a Professional Standards Committee and found guilty of failing to keep records of sperm and egg donors (Annual Report of the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission 2000-2001).