Letters
To would-be parents
Dear would-be sperm donation dads
'Like you I imagine, I never expected to be here. Unless you’ve had some disease or complication as a boy as a result of which you’ve always known you wouldn’t be able to have children of your own, or you’ve had a vasectomy, you don’t expect it. And it’s a body blow when they tell you you’re infertile. For the rest of my life I’ll remember the day, many years ago now, when they told me in that matter-of-fact way doctors have. I’ve now got two children conceived through DI, born in 1983 and 1986, but I can remember something of the feelings that hit me then ...'
Dear would-be sperm donation mums
'When my partner and I talked about having a baby, it wasn’t any baby I had in mind but the baby we would make between us…perhaps even HIS baby, because of his lovely blue eyes, his way of explaining things, his patience…because we loved each other. How could we now be thinking the unthinkable…considering having a baby using a sperm donor!'