Poll on donors favours information

Kirsty Horsey

Progress Educational Trust

03 July 2002

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[BioNews, London] A poll commissioned by the UK Children's Society shows that the public is in favour of allowing people conceived from donor sperm to gain more information about their genetic parents.

Over eighty per cent of the 1000 people surveyed believe that children born as a result of donated eggs or sperm ought to be able to access the genetic and medical histories of their biological parents when they reach the age of 18. Almost two thirds of people believed that donor children should have the same rights as adopted children to know their parents.

Only 35 per cent agreed that the social parents should be able to choose whether or not their children could discover more about their donor parents. But 69 per cent of those interviewed felt that the social parents should be encouraged to tell their children of their origins.

A government consultation on donor anonymity closed today. Julia Feast, from the Children's Society, welcomed the results of the survey, saying that 'the results from this poll are too powerful for the government to ignore. Children have been living under the shadow of legislation that has denied them the right to the most basic information about themselves for too long'.

Reproduced with permission from BioNews, an email and online sources of news, information and comment on assisted reproduction and genetics.