Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on November 11, 2004
Human Reproduction 2005 20(1):239-252; doi:10.1093/humrep/deh581
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Adolescents with open-identity sperm donors: reports from 12–17 year olds
1 Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 2 The Sperm Bank of California, 2115 Milvia St., 2nd Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704 3 World, 414, 13th St., 2nd floor, Oakland, CA 94612 4 The Ethics Practice, Berkeley, 355 62nd St., Oakland, CA 94618, USA
5 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jescheib{at}ucdavis.edu
BACKGROUND: Donor insemination programs can include ‘open-identity’ sperm donors, who are willing to release their identities to adult offspring. We report findings from adolescent offspring who have open-identity donors. METHODS: Using mail-back questionnaires, youths from 29 households (41.4% headed by lesbian couples, 37.9% by single women, 20.7% by heterosexual couples) reported their experience growing up knowing how they were conceived and their interest in the donor's identity. RESULTS: Most youths (75.9%) reported always knowing, and were somewhat to very comfortable with their conception origins. All but one felt knowing had a neutral to positive impact on their relationship with their birth mother and, separately, co-parent. The youths’ top question about the donor was, ‘What's he like?’ and >80% felt at least moderately likely to request his identity and pursue contact. Finally, of those who might contact the donor, 82.8% would do so to learn more about him, with many believing it would help them learn more about themselves. No youth reported wanting money and few (6.9%) wanted a father/child relationship. We also discuss differences found among youths from different household types. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the youths felt comfortable with their origins and planned to obtain their donor's identity, although not necessarily at age 18.
Key words: adolescence/disclosure/donor insemination/open-identity sperm donor/parenting
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