Rights and the law

If you conceived in the UK at a UK licensed clinic after 1 April 2005 most of the legal rights sit with donor conceived people rather than with the donors or parents.

After a child is born, parents are able to access non-identifying information about the donor from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). They are also able to ask for details of the number, sex and year of birth of any other children born from the same donor.

At 16, children have the right to ask for non-identifying information themselves. At that point they can also request to know the number, year of birth and sex of any half siblings created by the same donor. At 18 they can request contact details for their donor (they will receive their name and last known address) and they can express interest in contact with any half siblings, by mutual consent.

Any children in the donor’s own family are not included in the Register and they have no rights to information or contact themselves.

There are a few children created after April 2005 whose donors are still anonymous. 2005 was designated a ‘transitional year’ from one system to another up until April 2006. Some parents had children who were conceived before April 2005 with an anonymous donor and wanted a second or subsequent child from the same donor.

If in doubt, the HFEA should be able to confirm whether a post-2005 donor was anonymous or identifiable.

Donors can request information about the outcome of their donation and will be notified of the number, year of birth and sex of any children born. They don’t have the right to get contact details or any other information about those children and so any approach always needs to be initiated by the donor conceived individual.

In August 1991 the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act came into force in the UK, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) was created and the Register of treatments, donors and donor conceived people started.
Donors in this period were all anonymous and donated under a legal framework that protected their anonymity.

Parents and donor conceived people can request non-identifying information about the donor, and can get information about the number, sex and year of birth of any other children created by the same donor. However, contact information (even if the HFEA holds this information) cannot legally be shared.

Donor conceived people from this era can put their names on the Donor Sibling Link Register held by the HFEA if they are interested in contact with half-siblings by mutual consent. They can also enquire if anyone they are intending to have children with or are in an intimate relationship with was conceived from the same donor, assuming both parties to the relationship give their permission.

Any children in the donor’s own family are not included in the Register and they have no rights to information or contact themselves.

Donors who donated during this time can ask for the number, sex and year of birth of any children born as a result of their donation.

Some donors have come forward since the law changed in 2005 and re-registered with the HFEA, lifting their anonymity and making themselves identifiable to their donor conceived offspring.

Before 1991, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) didn’t exist and there was no legislation to regulate assisted conception treatments.

Clinics followed general guidelines on testing etc. laid down by professional bodies such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, but records were kept by individual practitioners and clinics, rather than centrally as they are now. NHS clinics offering donor conception will have had to follow the rules in place for record keeping in their area, but private fertility specialists kept their own files and often destroyed them when they left practice.

People conceived by sperm or egg donation prior to August 1991 have no rights to find either non-identifying or identifying information about their donor or half-siblings.

There are currently four ways for donor conceived people from this era to potentially make connections with half-siblings or their donor.

1. The HFEA’s Donor Conceived Register runs a voluntary information exchange and contact register. It also offers an advice and support service. Registering with the DCR and giving a sample of DNA via an inside cheek swab, offers a chance of making connections but it depends on other offspring and donors being registered as well for a match to be made.
2. The DCUK organisation is another place to go for connections. Although this group isn’t a formal way of finding half siblings or donors it offers support and information and we know that connections have been made.
3. You could also put your name and details on the American Donor Sibling Registry. This US based registry was started by Wendy Kramer and her donor conceived son Ryan. They have connected thousands of half-siblings and made a significant number of offspring/donor connections as well. Although the UK part of the database is much smaller than that of the US, it is used by UK parents, donors and offspring.
4. The final route is to use commercial home DNA testing site such as Ancestry or 23AndMe to try to identify genetic relatives.