In late 2015 a documentary aired on ABC television in Australia about a generation of people who were born in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of anonymous sperm donations. Apparently there are around 60,000 of them. Long kept secret, this information finally came to light in the second decade of the twenty-first century as these children grew and parents chose to reveal to them the source of their origins.

This in turn raised a number of philosophical arguments on legitimacy. The discussion centred on the rights of the anonymous donors to their continuation of the privacy they were promised decades earlier when they chose to donate for a fee, and the rights of the subsequent offspring to track down their biological fathers.

The documentary – Sperm Donors Anonymous tracked the stories of several of these people, now approaching early middle age themselves, as they attempted to contact their hitherto unknown fathers. Both sides of the equation were given an equal airing and it made for fascinating viewing.

From the perspective of the offspring, there is the shock of discovery, and the desire to know the truth. From the side of the former donors, there is an insight into the progression of the mindset from the young men who chose to donate on the promise of anonymity for the want of a few extra dollars – to the more reasoned moral compass of the middle aged man. Both curious to meet any potential offspring, and acknowledging the right of that offspring to know the truth.

Then of course there is also the feelings of the donor’s own families – wives and children who were not in the picture many years earlier, but who will also be deeply impacted by the potential sudden appearance of a previously unknown blood relative. Thrown into the mix is of course the mystery of the search, and the emotion of that first contact. These stories write themselves without need of fictional embellishment.

Australia was one of the first countries to recognise the rights of donor offspring to know the truth of their origins, but the information is sporadic and State specific. Here in Western Australia, there is a central register of donors, the women who received the donations, and the offspring. The register allows the parties to seek information about each other, if they choose to do so. Anonymity is still an option, but it is being overridden by curiosity and natural justice for so many people.

You can almost picture the young man making his way to the hospital to make his regular series of donations for a handful of cash in the late twentieth century. Perhaps he is a university student, perhaps he is unemployed. No doubt he desperately needs the extra cash. Maybe he can’t even afford to run a car. Has to ride a bus or even a bicycle to get to the hospital, where he goes into a sterile room and picks up a small glass container with a screw top, and hopes that someone else hasn’t stolen all the pornographic magazines or he’ll have to use his imagination for inspiration. When he finishes, he places his sealed container on a shelf and pushes a button on the wall. A panel slides back to reveal a laboratory full of white uniformed personnel. A gloved hand reaches through the space in the dividing wall and removes the container, and the panel slides shut again. He opens the door and walks out into brilliant sunshine, or indeed driving rain. He doesn’t appreciate the import of the chain of events he is about to set in motion. He is barely twenty years old. Little more than a child himself.

Here is a link to the documentary producer’s statement:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/sperm-donors-anonymous/spermdonors_producer.pdf

Here is a link to the donor’s register in Western Australia:

http://www.voluntaryregister.health.wa.gov.au/home/

I need to add my name to that register.