Sperm donor register delay threatens another dark chapter
■ The Taoiseach has described the recent revelations about past adoptions as yet another dark chapter in our history.
It is surprising, however, that he does not see the analogy between falsified birth registration of adopted children in the past and the identity crisis created for donor-conceived children today, whose birth certificates do not bear the name of either or both of their donor parents, and thus makes it as impossible for them as for adopted children to trace their biological parent/s.
Since 2000, the world’s largest sperm bank, Cryos International in Denmark, says that there have been 1,400 pregnancies among their Irish customers.
Until 2007, all sperm sold by Cryos to Irish customers was anonymous. Therefore, the only means open to donor-conceived teenagers approaching the age of majority to trace their anonymous donor parent/s would be possibly through DNA testing. That requires the co-operation of someone whose preference was/is to be anonymous.
Many countries, including UK, have banned anonymous donation – but not yet Ireland. Three years ago an act banning anonymous donation and providing for the setting up of a ‘national donorconceived person register’ was passed – the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015.
Incredibly, however, the Government has missed several deadlines to implement the new law, saying initially that it needed time for a ‘transition period’.
It is estimated that hundreds of donor-conceived children are born in Ireland every year. It has been reported that the Irish Fertility Society has lobbied the Government to postpone the ban on anonymous sperm donations. Last year the Government gave an undertaking to fund/part-fund costly fertility treatments.
Regarding the adoption revelations, quoting American author Alex Haley, the Taoiseach said in the Dáil: “In all of us there is a hunger ... to know who we are and where we have come from.” Given the Government’s failure to implement a law allowing donorconceived children to trace their biological parents, his words ring hollow.
We are good at condemning the dark chapters of the past for which we cannot be held personally responsible. Without learning from the past, we are equally good at creating our own dark chapters. Ann Kehoe Dublin 15