Letters to the Editor
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different from adoption?
There is nothing stopping a requirement for donors to provide a comprehensive medical history, yet still remain anonymous.
Parents who give their children up for adoption are protected by laws preventing them for being responsible for those children in the future, but sperm and egg donors are not allowed such protections. Why is that? Giving up sperm or eggs to create a child that is then raised by a stranger is, for all ethical intents, exactly the same as adoption, yet it is treated differently by the law.
I too am amazed that there are even 208 donors in Britian. I certainally wouldn't be one (had I sperm to donate...) These men are put in a totally disadvantagous situation, in order to help a total stranger acheive their dream of giving birth to their own child.
Children from these arrangements should realise that they still have one biological parent who they know and grow up with, which is more than adopted children. They should also realise that having an 'absent' biological father, or having a step-father, is pretty normal these days. Why should they have the right to contact a stranger who was simply doing their mother a favour by donating his genetic material?