Helping parents to tell their children about the use of donor insemination (DI) and determining their opinions about open-identity sperm donors.

OBJECTIVE

To look at the level of compliance with Swedish law whether or not parents intend to tell their child about donor insemination. We also wanted to look at the parents' attitudes towards open-identity sperm donors and at relationships within the family.

METHOD

All parents who were treated and gave birth to a child through donor insemination from 1997 to 2003 were included in the study. Sixteen of 20 couples (80%) were willing to take part in an interview, where the men and women were interviewed separately. The children of these couples had an average age of 2.9 years.

RESULTS

Three of the 16 couples had told their child about donor insemination and 9 couples intended to tell the child when he/she was older. Thus 12 couples (75%) had disclosed or planned to inform their child in the future. Fourteen of 16 couples had told others about the donor insemination. The majority (21 of 31 individuals) had a positive attitude towards open-identity for sperm donors and 16 of 31 would have chosen an open-identity sperm donor if they had had the choice between that and an anonymous donor. All the parents felt they had an equal relationship with their child.

CONCLUSION

Couples who conceived a child through donor insemination are open about the donor insemination, both to other people in their surroundings and in their intention to tell the child. These families seem to be functioning well with relaxed attitudes towards the donor insemination process.