Sarah Norcross, Director of the Progress Educational Trust (PET), said:
Prolific donors whose sperm is used in several countries may find that they have helped to create hundreds of children around the world. All of these children will potentially be able to identify and contact their donor, either because they were conceived in an identity release system (such as we have in the UK), or else via direct-to-consumer genetic testing. These children will also potentially be able to identify and contact one another.
Some might not be bothered by this situation, but others might find it challenging or even overwhelming. There are vastly different and evolving attitudes to genetic relatedness, and this sort of situation is still quite new. It is therefore sensible, for the time being, to seek to limit the number of families that can be created by a single donor – both nationally and internationally. International agreements may be imperfect and difficult to achieve, but that does not mean we should just give up.
