Donor Conception Network - Membership
Who is the Network for?
In 1993 the five founding families were
brought together by Dr. Sheila Cooke at her clinic at the Jessop Hospital
in Sheffield and gently 'bullied' by her into starting a national
self-help network for DI parents and those contemplating using DI.
The five families, Angela and Andy Mays, Jane and Neil Offord, Sandra
Giddings, Charlie and Maggie Manicom and Walter Merricks and me, all had
children by DI.
We were brought together by interest in a newspaper
article about the book My Story which had been written by Angela and Jane
and made possible by the Infertility Research Trust at the Jessop.
We hammered out a constitution (and a name!) for this new organisation in
a hotel in Sheffield a few weeks later, in between being filmed by the
BBC for a documentary called Seeds of Secrecy, which was shown in May
1993.
What we were very clear about from the beginning was that this
organisation was to be inclusive. Anyone using DI for family creation
would be welcome to join. We recognised that some individual members
might have doubts and anxieties about including single parents and
lesbian couples, but we were unanimous in the decision that the
organisation would be completely open to all. This was not a difficult
conclusion to come to as it seemed to follow naturally from the
conviction that the welfare of our children was best served by being open
with them. If what we were about was the needs and rights of the children
then all children created by DI were welcome, as were their parents, no
matter what type of family they came from.
This remains as true today as it did then.
Where we have moved on to is
to become even more inclusive with our name change, to very positively
welcome families using egg and embryo donation for family creation.
Within this inclusive framework it is of course important to recognise
the different needs of particular groups and in order to address this we
have over the years appointed co-ordinators for single parent families,
lesbian couple led families, egg and embryo donation families, as well as
for DI families.
All new members receive a 'phone call or letter from the
co-ordinator of their group (unless they have spoken to someone on the
Helpline before joining) within a few weeks of receiving the Welcome Pack
of newsletter, library and contact list. In this way we hope everyone has
the opportunity to feel part of a large group which is also capable of
recognising their particular issues and needs.
It is of course impossible to meet everyone's needs all of the time, but
we hope that over time the Network has been and will continue to be of
value to you, whoever you are and whatever your situation! It is of
course YOUR organisation so let the Steering Group know what you need and
also what you could offer to help keep this unique network working for
all.
Olivia
Membership is open to those outside the UK and special arrangements can be made for subscriptions
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