“We have a right to know our parents”
There are calls for a change in birth certificate regulations after a woman conceived by sperm donation had her adopted father erased as parent.
There are calls for a change in birth certificate regulations after a woman conceived by sperm donation had her adopted father erased as parent.
Emma Cresswell, 26, has won a six-year legal battle to have the man who she thought was her father removed from her birth certificate. Cresswell only discovered as an adult that she was conceived by a sperm donation, following a heated argument with her adopted father. Incensed at being deceived by her parents and feeling increasingly distant from her mother’s partner, Cresswell fought to have her adopted father’s details taken off her legal documents.
“I had thought I was one person for so long and then I found out that a whole side of that wasn’t true”, She said.
Cresswell is now campaigning for biological parentage to be stated in addition to legal parentage on a child’s birth certificate. Dr. Marilyn Crawshaw of the University of York agrees:
“The birth certificate gives you nothing to go on. I know of people who believed they were at risk of genetically transmittable diseases because they thought the parents named on their birth certificate were their biological parents.”
Sperm donor campaigns for more information for children of sperm donors
Xavier Symons
https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/Emma-Cresswell01_2980462b.jpg
Creative commons
identity
sperm donation
More Stories
BioEdge has closed its doors
After 23 years, BioEdge ceased publication in May 2024. Not that there wasn't lots to report on and talk about,...
How liberal are American bioethicists?
There is growing acknowledgement of the fact that the backgrounds, ideas, and politics of American academics are out of step...
Doctors can be socialized to cooperate in morally despicable evil, says bioethicist
Bioethicist Carl Elliott seems to relish stirring up fellow bioethicists and the medical profession. In his latest book, The Occasional Human...
3 sperm donors from same family in Quebec have sired 600 children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children by offering free sperm on the...
American IVF clinics are happily offering sex selection
The United States is one of the few countries where IVF sex selection is legal – and it is a...
Owner of castration website in UK found guilty of grievous bodily harm
“Enhancement” normally connotes adding powers beyond normal human functioning. However, there are dark kinds of enhancement which remove them. A...