# Hi girls: Anyone know the legalities of a non-anonymous sperm donor



## CortneyWil (Aug 6, 2012)

Hi everyone, hope your all ok!

I just wondered what legal rights a non-anonymous sperm donor (from a sperm bank) has

I know the child can obtain information from the sperm bank when they turn 18. I just couldn't find much info on the internet I hope someone can let me know.

Many thanks

CortneyWils


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## blossoming (Sep 29, 2012)

CortneyWil said:


> Hi everyone, hope your all ok!
> 
> I just wondered what legal rights a non-anonymous sperm donor (from a sperm bank) has
> 
> ...


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## olivia m (Jun 24, 2004)

Hi CortneyWil
Assuming you are talking about sourcing sperm from a UK sperm bank, or importing UK compliant sperm from abroad, you will find the legal conditions prevailing under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act on the website of the HFEA www.hfea.gov.uk    Briefly, this means that the donor has a (moral) responsibility to update their records and keep the HFEA informed of changes of address so that they can be contacted after the child is 18, but has no legal responsibility for the child whatsoever.  He is entitled to know how many children have been conceived from his donation(s), the years of birth and gender of each child, but nothing else.  He cannot request contact, only the child (young person) can.  The same conditions of course apply to egg donors.
The Donor Conception Network is indeed very informative and we hold a small SibLink register that members can use to make connections between children conceived from the same donor, but this is difficult in the UK as the HFEA has forbidden clinics to release donor numbers for the purpose of sibling tracing.  Some people do have these codes from a time prior to this ban.  The much bigger register, Donor Sibling Register (DSR) is held privately in the US, but is increasingly being used by UK families to connect siblings and sometimes donors and offspring as well.

Just to respond to 'blossoming' re counselling for the 'child' before contact.  As things stand at the moment there is no provision made for counselling for any of the parties prior to contact being made.  DCN and many others are lobbying hard for intermediary services to be available for offspring, donors and families of both parties to be made available prior to 2023 when the first young people conceived from 2005 onwards with identifiable donors, will become 18.
Olivia


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