Abolishing Anonymity in UK Donor Conceptions, the (un)Realized Fears of Gender Disparity in Child Creation

In 2005, the UK enacted a rule that banned the anonymity of sex cell donors contributing to conceptions through technologically assisted reproduction (ART) (or donor conceptions). This change to donor anonymity was modeled after a Swedish ban enacted in the late 1970s and has been followed by a recent 2015 mandate for sperm donor disclosure in Germany. National requirements for the disclosure of identifying and genetic information for sex cell donors are largely motivated by concerns for welfare. Claims of an offspring’s ‘right to know’ his or her background presumes that the emotional wellbeing of donor-conceived children includes state-protected access to detailed information concerning inherited traits and estimates on long-term health. Initially, many in the UK feared that mandatory donor disclosure would act as a disincentive to donation and reduce supply. Although framed as a gender-neutral policy change, a drop in sperm donors was especially anticipated. This effect has not yet been expressly verified. Simultaneously, advances in ART – such as those leading to three-party parenting – further illustrate the capacity for medical technologies to force fundamental revisions in the normative value of gendered contributions in child production overall. This paper considers the actual and publicly perceived effects of banned donor anonymity on conception and family building in the UK. It attends to the advances in reproductive technologies that may have altered social understandings of gendered contributions to child creation and public acceptance of parental transparency.