Will donor anonymity be a thing of the past?

This week's High Court ruling, that two people conceived after donor assisted conception can challenge a government decision to deny access to further information about their donor, represents a step towards a more open system of gamete donation in the UK. However, it is perhaps not the case itself, the outcome of which is unpredictable, but the change in attitudes that it reflects which is notable.

The High Court ruling is important but modest. It has allowed the claimants to bring a case asking the court to review a decision to deny them access to further information about their donors. The issue itself will remain undecided until the judicial review has taken place, but the fact that the case can go ahead means that the claimants at least have a credible legal argument.

The article has not been tested in this context before and the outcome of the judicial review will be an important clue as to how it ought to be interpreted in the context of genetic parentage. Does a right to form a personal identity mean that we have a right to know our genetic parents?

The claimants in the judicial review are not seeking identifying information about the men who donated their sperm so that they could be conceived. But theirs will be an important test case and has already achieved one aim of raising the profile of the donor anonymity issue. As a recent comment from Lady Warnock (architect of the current laws which guarantee donor anonymity) demonstrates, attitudes have changed since current laws were passed in 1990. There is now a preference for more openness in donor assisted conception and the anonymity rule may end up being scrapped, regardless of the outcome of the judicial review.

I personally favour the double track system, not because it is a compromise position, but because it reflects the autonomy that prospective parents ought to be granted when it comes to making decisions about their reproductive lives. But whichever system we end up with, it seems likely that knowing little or nothing about the person who helped make the conception possible will be a thing of the past for children born of donor assisted conception.