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Donor Gametes and Embryos: Who Wants to Know What about Whom, and Why?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Pia Broderick  and
Iain Walker
Pia Broderick*
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Australia
Iain Walker
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Australia
*
Correspondence may be addressed to School of Psychology, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA,6150, Australia (E-mail: P.Broderick@Murdoch.edu.au or I.Walker@Murdoch.edu.au).
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Abstract

Many treatments for infertility require the use of donated gametes or embryos. Arguments have been made that all parties involved (donors, recipients, and children) should have open access to information about one another. The present article reports a survey of attitudes of 77 donors and 327 recipients in the state of Western Australia. Donors and recipients endorsed a register of nonidentifying information, but were less keen on a register of identifying information. They believed that medical personnel should have access to such registers, and that donors and recipients (but not children) should have access to nonidentifying, but not identifying, information. Typically, the sort of information respondents wanted to access pertained to health status and physical characteristics. Overwhelmingly, both donors and recipients saw gamete and embryo donation as more like blood donation than like adoption.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2001 , pp. 29 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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