Tag: sperm donor

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Too Risky for Toddler to Meet Sperm Donor Father, Judge Rules

brigitte

The potential risk of introducing a Northern Ontario toddler to his genetic father at this point in his life is too major to be ignored, a judge has ruled in turning down a sperm donor’s bid for interim access to the boy, now being raised by his biological mother and her lesbian partner.

The decision marks the first round in a key test case of the uncertain law around exchanges of human sperm and egg, as increasing numbers of Canadian children are born by “assisted” reproduction.

A full trial is scheduled for this October to consider the man’s demand for paternity rights – and add some clarity to the tangled issue – but Rene deBlois had requested access to the boy pending the final wrap-up of the case.

The two women had argued that Tyler Lavigne, who has never met Mr. deBlois, might become confused and insecure if the 22-month-old encountered the donor now, noted Justice Norman Karam of the Ontario Superior Court in Cochrane, Ont.

“Despite the child’s young age, it is impossible to know what disclosure of [Mr. deBlois’s] status as his parent might mean,” said the judge. “All circumstances considered, the risk of there being an adverse effect to the child is too great to ignore.”

Justice Karam said he considered imposing limitations on the access to deal with those concerns, but decided the restrictions would be virtually impossible to enforce.

He said he also found “very convincing” the couple’s argument that by allowing access to the child now, he could inadvertently affect the outcome of the trial, expected to be closely watched by legal analysts, parent groups and others.

Selena Kazimierski and Nicole Lavigne say the donor – a former high-school acquaintance of Ms. Lavigne – signed an agreement that he would never contact the baby born in October, 2010, with the help of his artificially inseminated sperm. They fear the family life they have built for their son would be unduly disrupted if he that changed. The donor says he no longer honours the deal, partly because Ms. Lavigne failed to follow through on her verbal commitment to have a baby for him, too.  Read full article.

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Sperm Donor Records Disposed of in Japan

brigitte

TOKYO, July 14 (UPI) — A survey of Japanese fertility clinics found about 30 percent of information on sperm donors has been destroyed, officials said.

Under the Medical Practitioners Law, such clinics are required to keep donor records for five years, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

However, the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology advises fertility clinics keep records a longer period of time, as children conceived via artificial insemination by a donor, or AID, may try to find their biological fathers when they are older.

A survey conducted by the newspaper in June of 23 registered medical institutions found 12 clinics that provide AID said they keep all clinical records of the couples who have done the procedure, including information on the sperm donors. Six other institutions said they do not keep clinical records that contained information to identify donors. One clinic said it disposes of the records, but keeps other relevant documents. Four clinics surveyed said they did not do AID.

Read full article.

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Court To Rule If Sperm Donor Can Renege

brigitte

Who actually owns sperm donated to a sperm bank – the donor or the woman who paid for the sperm? Can a donor decide to change his mind after receiving payment for his donation? And what is more important, a donor’s right to refuse to be a father against his will, or a women’s right to have children who are biological siblings? The High Court of Justice will have to rule on these complex and sensitive questions in a petition that might affect the lives of thousands of women who use Israeli sperm banks to fulfill their wish to be mothers.

Four sperm vials – enough for eight fertilization treatments – are at the center of a judicial conflict between the donor who wishes to have his sperm donations scrapped and the recipient who purchased the vials and wishes to use them to have several children from the same father. Surprising as it may sound, there are no legal guidelines regarding sperm donations, and the scenario of the donor reneging is not dealt with in forms filled out by the donor and the recipient, nor in the directives of the Health Ministry.

Read full article.

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Woman Sues FDA for Right to Select Sperm Donor, Bypass Sperm Bank

brigitte

A California woman pursuing artificial insemination is suing the federal government for the right to choose how she’ll get the sperm.

The unusual case was filed Monday in U.S. District Court. On the heels of the Supreme Court decision upholding the federal health care overhaul, the plaintiff in this case is challenging another area of federal health care regulation.
At issue are Food and Drug Administration rules that set standards for sperm banks — like requiring tests for communicable diseases. But the woman in the California suit doesn’t want to go through a standard sperm bank or other clinic. The anonymous plaintiff instead, according to the suit, wants to use the sperm of someone she knows — at no cost — without going through all the federal regulatory rigmarole.

She and her lawyers call the FDA rules an unconstitutional violation of her rights — that is, her right to start a family with whomever she wants.

“When you are regulating private decisions between two individuals in a non-commercial context that have to do with something so intimate and personal as whether they want to have a child together, then the FDA regulations should not apply,” Amber Abbasi , attorney in the case, told FoxNews.com.

Abbasi’s group Cause of Action filed the suit on the California woman’s behalf.

Read full article.

 

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Donor Siblings, and a New Kind of Family

brigitte

As we swelter toward July 4th and traditional family gatherings, I find myself contemplating the meaning of the very new, and very non-traditional, type of extended family that has dropped into my life.

Last month I posted eight words to the Donor Sibling Registry, a Web site that helps form connections among the children conceived by sperm, egg or embryo donations. Girl born October 2008. Boy born May 2010. I was required to enter one other key piece of information: the name of the sperm bank and ID number of the donor that we used to conceive our children. The match popped up instantly from my simple query, like a book in an online library catalog.

Two messages awaited me when I logged onto the Web site the following morning. Janedog in Canada has one child and wants to make a connection. Tripk6 has two children. They live on the West Coast. The three children are all born from the same donor that we used. “Doesn’t he make beautiful babies?” asked Tripk6 rhetorically.

Read full article.

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Conservatives Line Up Against Sperm Donors, But Lack the Power to Ban Them

brigitte

WASHINGTON — A new documentary exploring the ethical implications of sperm donation is creating a buzz among religious audiences.

“Anonymous Father’s Day” delves into bioethics from the perspective of donor-conceived children who grow up not knowing their biological fathers. The film gives fodder to opponents of assisted reproductive technology, who argue the fertility “industry” has led to psychologically scarred children and the “commodification” of human life.

ART’s ethical implications are not solely a religious issue, and “Anonymous Father’s Day” makes no explicit religious claims. But its promotion of heterosexual marriage attracts religious audiences, who oppose the reproductive alternatives ART facilitates.

Jennifer Lahl, the writer, director and producer behind the film, recently held back-to-back screenings in Washington, D.C., at the conservative Christian-focused Family Research Council and the Catholic Information Center. Lahl plans future showings at Christian institutions.

This is the second film on gamete donation by Lahl, founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture, a California-based nonprofit that studies beginning and end-of-life issues.

Read full article.

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Give Me Back My Sperm, Donor Says

brigitte

An Israel woman has filed a petition at the Supreme Court against the Health Ministry in an attempt to regain access to five units of sperm from a man who now regrets his donation.

The woman, whose name has not been revealed, is the mother of a two-year-old daughter who was conceived artificially using the donor’s sperm.

In order to provide her child with a biologically related sibling, the woman acquired five further units of the same donor’s semen from a sperm bank.

The donor, whose name also remains protected, claims that a recent religious epiphany made him wish he had never donated.

Israel is a global centre for assisted births, including artificial insemination. Sperm donors can expect to earn between £50 to £130 per donation, and in exchange, are guaranteed absolute, lifelong anonymity.

Read full article.

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In Sperm Banks, a Roll of the Genetic Dice

ASRM News and Research

For more than a year, the Kretchmars carefully researched sperm banks and donors. The donor they chose was a family man, a Christian like them, they were told. Most important, he had a clean bill of health. His sperm was stored at the New England Cryogenic Center in Boston, and according to the laboratory’s Web site, all donors there were tested for various genetic conditions.