TY - JOUR
T1 - Donor information considered important to donors, recipients and offspring: an Australian perspective
AU - Rodino, I.S.
AU - Burton, PJ
AU - Sanders, Katherine
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Donor conception research supports open-identity donor programmes and disclosure to donor-conceived offspring. This study examines Australian donors', recipients' and donor-conceived offspring's views on the importance of different types of biographical information about the donor. Participants (125 recipients, 39 donors (known, identity-release and anonymous), 23 donor-conceived offspring) completed an online or paper self-administered anonymous questionnaire. Individuals rated the importance of 15 types of biographical information and subsequently chose the three they deemed most important. All groups included donor's health history and name as key variables to be available to donor-conceived offspring. Recipients viewed the donor's decision to donate as important, donors thought their feelings about being contacted were important and donor-conceived offspring expressed an interest in the donor's own family. Sperm donors were less inclined to view the provision of information as important compared with offspring. For recipients, the importance of information became apparent once they had disclosed to their children. This is the first study to gauge Australian stakeholders' attitudes to release of information in the donor conception process. The findings support the move to open-identity donation systems and emphasize the importance of considering the varying perspectives of all stakeholders by policy developers
AB - Donor conception research supports open-identity donor programmes and disclosure to donor-conceived offspring. This study examines Australian donors', recipients' and donor-conceived offspring's views on the importance of different types of biographical information about the donor. Participants (125 recipients, 39 donors (known, identity-release and anonymous), 23 donor-conceived offspring) completed an online or paper self-administered anonymous questionnaire. Individuals rated the importance of 15 types of biographical information and subsequently chose the three they deemed most important. All groups included donor's health history and name as key variables to be available to donor-conceived offspring. Recipients viewed the donor's decision to donate as important, donors thought their feelings about being contacted were important and donor-conceived offspring expressed an interest in the donor's own family. Sperm donors were less inclined to view the provision of information as important compared with offspring. For recipients, the importance of information became apparent once they had disclosed to their children. This is the first study to gauge Australian stakeholders' attitudes to release of information in the donor conception process. The findings support the move to open-identity donation systems and emphasize the importance of considering the varying perspectives of all stakeholders by policy developers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp= 79951675376&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.rbmo.2010.11.007
DO - 10.1016/j.rbmo.2010.11.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 21269882
SN - 1472-6483
VL - 22
SP - 303
EP - 311
JO - Reproductive Biomedicine Online
JF - Reproductive Biomedicine Online
ER -