Couples seeking fertility treatment are being turned away by some NHS fertility clinics because of a shortage of donated sperm. The crisis is mainly being attributed to the change in the law in April last year, when sperm donors lost their right to anonymity and donor-conceived children were given the right to track down their biological fathers, if their parents choose to tell them how they were conceived.
Jenni asks whether donor anonymity is the real reason for the crisis, and what responsibilities parents should have towards their donor conceived children in disclosing their biological identity. She talks to Wendy Kramer and her son Ryan, founders of the Donor Sibling Registry, an international website where donor children can search for their biological families, Peter Wardle a consultant gynaecologist at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, Laura Witjens from the National Gamete Donation Trust, and Fiona MacCallum from Warwick University who’s researching families who are raising non-genetic children.
