Doctors say sperm and egg donors should have anonymity

Published on Monday 26 June 2006 01:20

DOCTORS are calling for sperm and egg donations to be made anonymous again because desperate couples are left unable to access fertility treatment.

Donors' rights to anonymity were removed last year, meaning children conceived in this way will be able to identify their genetic parents when they are 18.

But even though the donor would have no legal obligations towards the child, the numbers coming forward to donate has fallen dramatically in a year.

Scotland is believed to have only one active sperm donor. Donated eggs are also scarce. Now doctors from the British Medical Association's Fife division, forced to turn away couples needing donor sperm, are calling for a return to anonymity.

A motion submitted for the BMA's annual conference, taking place in Belfast this week, calls for a U-turn on the decision.

Dr Stewart Irvine, BMA spokesman and a consultant gynaecologist at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, said the effect on services after the law change had been "catastrophic". "Donor insemination services have more or less ceased across Scotland and in many parts of the UK," he said

"In Scotland, men are not willing to donate sperm if there is the possibility of being contacted by offspring in the future."

Dr Irvine said that in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, patients were being put on a waiting list as no sperm was available.

In Glasgow there was still access to a small amount of donor sperm, imported from elsewhere, and Dundee had only one active donor, he said.

About 50 to 60 sperm donors are needed to cover demand in Scotland.

He added: "There is a small group of couples who, despite all the things we can now do to improve fertility, do not have a production of sperm, so we cannot help without donors. It is desperately sad for these couples."

Dr Irvine said that in Edinburgh there were around 30 couples awaiting sperm, with numbers growing by about one or two a week.

He said: "Most of the profession believe it was the wrong decision."