Victoria has enacted laws that retrospectively strip donors of anonymity.

The donor anonymity debate flared up again in Australia this week, as controversial retrospective donor laws came into effect in the state of Victoria.

The new Victorian legislation, effective as of last Wednesday, allows donor conceived children to access information about their biological father, even where the donor has requested anonymity. Donor children can apply to a central registry, the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA), to access the name, date of birth and donor code of their male blood-parent. The amendments are an Australian first, and overhaul previous protections for donor fathers who donated sperm anonymously before January 1 1998.

The laws have been heavily criticised, with Vice-President of the Australian Medical Association Tony Bartone saying that we risk undermining the integrity of consent procedures: “All patients must feel confident that when they see a doctor and undergo a medical procedure their privacy will be upheld, both now and in the future.”

Yet some suggest that provisions in the law to prevent donor children from contacting their male blood-parent are sufficient to protect the rights of donors. Editorial staff from The Age wrote on Tuesday that “the rights of the child have been appropriately updated without compromising the rights of the donor.”

Victoria’s controversial donor anonymity laws come into effect
Xavier Symons
https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/Donor-anonymity.jpg
Creative commons
https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/Donor-anonymity.jpg
donor anonymity
donor conception
identity
sperm donation

• Author
• Recent Posts

Xavier Symons

Xavier Symons is a bioethicist and scholar in residence at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics at Georgetown University.

Latest posts by Xavier Symons (see all)

• Can machines be moral? - March 7, 2021
• Can we synthesise Christianity moral theology with secular bioethics? - November 28, 2020
• Euthanasia polling data may fail to capture people’s considered views - August 15, 2020