Donor Conception Network - Articles
Research Shows Early Telling Pays Off Adolescents with open-identity sperm donors: reports from 12–17 year olds from 'Human Reproduction' the journal of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology 2004
Summary of Findings
Donor insemination programs can include ‘open-identity’ sperm
donors, who are willing to release their identities to adult offspring.
We report findings from adolescent offspring who have open-identity
donors.
Methods:
Using mail-back questionnaires, youths from 29 households (41.4% headed
by lesbian couples, 37.9% by single women, 20.7% by heterosexual couples)
reported their experience growing up knowing how they were conceived and
their interest in the donor’s identity.
Results:
Most youths (75.9%) reported always knowing, and were somewhat to very
comfortable with their conception origins. All but one felt knowing had a
neutral to positive impact on their relationship with their birth mother
and, separately, co-parent.
The youths’ top question about the
donor was, ‘What’s he like?’ and >80% felt at least
moderately likely to request his
identity and pursue contact.
Finally, of those who might contact the
donor, 82.8% would do so to learn more about him, with many believing it
would help them learn more about themselves.
No youth reported wanting
money and few (6.9%) wanted a father/child relationship. We also discuss
differences found among youths from different household types.
Conclusions:
The majority of the youths felt comfortable with their origins and
planned to obtain their donor’s identity, although not necessarily
at age 18.
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