On 24 February 2022, the Legislative Assembly agreed that the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee inquire into and report on the rights of Donor-conceived persons to access genetic information about their donors. This inquiry is a submission to the said matters.

Preview

Contrasting issues of retrospectivity

Some years ago, I spoke at a seminar to fellow lawyers about fertility law issues, including how Victoria had become the first place in the world to remove anonymity retrospectively. I said that it was likely only a question of time before this change came to Queensland- advocates for donor-conceived individuals want transparency.

Afterwards, I was approached by two colleagues, both men.

The first colleague had been born almost 40 years ago, a year apart from his sister. They had learnt many years afterwards from their mum and dad that a Sperm Donor was their genetic father. They had approached the Queensland clinic involved, which had advised that the identity of the sperm donor was anonymous- and could not be released.

They then did their own searches- using the DNA databases- and discovered that they did not have the same sperm donor. It seems his DNA connection was with a family that had the same surname as the treating doctor- who had since died.

He was very hopeful that the laws would change in Queensland so that he could find out the truth of where he came from. I warned him that I had been told that the old records were often unreliable- or had been destroyed. While the law may change, he may not get closure.

The second colleague, who was approaching 50, spoke strongly about his concerns about how “these men” had signed contracts where they were anonymous: “contracts are contracts” and now there was a proposal to retrospectively change the law- which was a terrible idea- because “these men” had been promised anonymity, but now it was being removed from them.

The more he spoke, the more I had the impression that he was a sperm donor- and was fearful of being contacted by a child born from his sperm.

To access the rest of the inquiry, download the paper here.

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