Shortage of sperm donors predicted when anonymity goes

Fertility specialists are warning that the already short supply of donor eggs and sperm in the United Kingdom could drop further after last week's announcement that donors are to lose their right to anonymity in 2005.

The Department of Health announced that children conceived as a result of donated sperm, eggs, and embryos will in future be able to access information about their genetic origins once they reach the age of 18 years.

At present, those born from donated gametes can, at the age of 18, ask if they are related to someone they intend to marry and can be given basic information including the donor's height and eye colour.

Under the plans, donors' offspring would have the same rights as adopted children to trace a biological parent. Donors will still have no legal or financial responsibility for the child, and the changes, expected to come into force on 1 April 2005, will not apply to donations made before then.

Suzi Leather, chair of the HFEA

Health minister Melanie Johnson, announcing the changes at the annual conference of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said: “I firmly believe donor-conceived people have a right to information about their genetic origins that is currently denied them, including the identity of their donor.”

She said that in Sweden the supply of donors had initially dropped when anonymity was removed but recovered later. The government plans an awareness campaign to try to encourage more donors to come forward.

The move coincides with a review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1991 in line with changes in society and technological advances. One change mooted is to give lesbian couples and single women the same access to infertility treatment as heterosexual couples have, by abolishing the requirement for clinics to take account of the need of the child for a father.