参加者からの質問とコメント

参加者からの質問とコメント
1.
ドナー情報検索については、子どもの意志がメイン、あるいは反映されますか？

それは何歳からですか？
When it comes to searching for donor information, is the will of the child main orreflected? From what age?
A: ヴィクトリア州については、ドナー提供を受けて誕生した人であれば 16 歳になったときにこういった記録を開示して欲しいという申請をすることができます。
またその親御さんたちも同様にそういうことをすることができます。
また実はドナーも自分が提供した精子や卵子配偶子で誕生した子供あるいは人がいるかどうかを検索することができますけれども、その検索された結果、発見された人たちがドナーに対して自分の情報を開示するかどうかという判断は 18 歳にならないとできない、あるいは 18 歳以下であれば、その親の同意がなければできないといったそういった仕組みになっています。
2.
Can you talk a little bit more about the practices that “donors may apply”?
ドナーが申請することについて、もう少し詳しく教えてほしい。
A: 2016 年の法改正にともなって、匿名性が廃止されることについて大々的な広報活動を行い、その影響が大きい。ドナー同士が会話をするようになり、ドナ―の中にも、色々な考え方をする人がいることが分かった。あるドナーは、生まれた人がドナーの情報を求めるのはわかるが、ドナーの側から子どもの情報を求めることは問題があるのではないかという人もいた。その一方で、ドナーも自分の提供で生まれた子どもを知りたいという思いから提供する人もいた。また、子どもが情報を求めるなら、自分が何もしなくても、いずれはわかると思うから、それなら、自分から申請しようという人もいた。
3.
The survey is fascinating! I am going to read your paper. It is interesting to see that the7 donors did not offer much information about why they applied for the registers. Iwonder why….
4.
I seem "making connection is one of the important reasons to apply" forlinking. However, this may come from recipients but I wonder how donors feel about
this?
5.
２つのタイプの不妊クリニックがあると説明がありました。不妊治療を受けているカップルは、クリニックの方針を理解した上で治療を受けているのでしょうか？ You explainedthat there are two types of infertility clinics, active clinics and passive clinics. Can68

2020 年度

IGS 国際セミナー（生殖領域）
第２回 ９月９日（水）提供精子・提供卵子による家族づくりとドナーリンク（血縁者さがし）
Family Building by Donor Conception and Donor Linking

infertile couples understand the policy of clinics and choose which clinic they use before
they start to take treatment?
A: In Victoria, linking requests tend to be dealt with by VARTA, and clinics refer toVARTA. We found that clinics in most other states did not tend to have policies about
donor linking and requests for linking were dealt with case by case. So currently, it is notpossible for infertile couples to always know whether their clinic will treat linking
requests in an ‘active’ or ‘passive’ way. We argue that clinics in all states should haveclearer policies about how to deal with requests for information and contact with donors.
6.
90％の人が、自分がドナーからの配偶子提供により生まれたと知らないというのは、どう解釈すればよいのでしょうか。
知りたい人が知れる環境を国として整えつつあるが、結局は親がその事実を子に伝えない人のほうが突出して多いということなのでしょうか？
Why 90% of people do not know that they were born by donating gametes from a donor?
Although Victoria is improving the environment where donor-conceived people canaccess their donors' identifying information, but do most of recipient parents didn't tell
the truth to their children?
A: Although the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority runs seminarsencouraging parents to tell their children they are donor conceived, it seems that many
parents of older donor conceived children still have not told them. When donors makeapplications for information, the authority has to contact the donor conceived person.
And in 90% of these cases, the person has not known they were donor conceived. It may
be that parents of younger children are more open, but we still do not know much about
this.
7.
近親結婚の虞はありませんか？
Isn't there a risk of getting married with a close relative between donor conceived
people, or donor-conceived and donor's child in Australia?
A: In Australia, there is a strict limit on the number of families who can use the same
donor’s sperm. Currently this is 10 families in most states and territories, although as
low as 5 families in some states. This is to protect against too many offspring being bornfrom the same donor, and potentially meeting and marrying. But I suppose there isalways a risk. We have heard stories from donor conceived people who went to the69

参加者からの質問とコメント

same school or lived in the same area as their siblings born from the same donor sperm.
This is one of the reasons why many people believe it is important to tell children they
are donor conceived.
8.
I have two questions.
1）リンキングのあとにどんなことが起こるのかに関心があります。
ドナーと子ども、親のモードのずれが問題になったり、互いに侵襲的だと感じたりすることも予想されますが、どうでしょうか。
A: 私たちの研究に参加してくれた人たちは全体的にリンキングを好意的にとらえていた。
しかし、現実には問題あるケースもある。ドナーが申請して、出生者に連絡が行って、はじめて出生者が提供精子で生まれたことを知るケースもある。そうした時には、ドナーは出生者と何らかの関係を期待していたのに、出生者にはトラウマになるような経験となってしまうこともある。また同じドナーから生まれた者同士が、いい関係を築けたらと思いリンキングでつながるのだが、実際にはうまくいかなかった事例もある。
2）ドナーにも情報が開示されたら、ドナーが増えたり、ドナーが次の提供をして進むことは考えられますか？日本ではドナーが減少すると言われているので。
A:文化的な背景が違うと、状況も違うかもしれないが、私は、色々な国の研究結果をみると、ドナーの匿名性が廃止されることで、ドナーの数が減るとは思わない。確かにドナーの特徴が変化し、若い学生のドナーが多かったのが、年齢の高い既婚で子どものいるような人に変化する可能性はある。
9.
貴重なお話ありがとうございました。精子提供を受けた兄弟姉妹どうしで遺産相続などの問題は発生していないのでしょうか？相続権と生殖医療は完全に分かれているのでしょうか？
Thank you for your valuable lecture. Are there problems such as succession of property
among genetical siblings who were born by sperm donation? Are inheritance rights ofdonor's children and the right of donor-conceived people completely separate?
A: This is an interesting question. Generally speaking, children born of sperm donation
do not have rights to the donor’s property etc. just as the donor has no rights to parent
them. But in a situation where a donor becomes known to a child when they are young
and forms a relationship, there may be some legal claims that could be made under
Australian family law, depending on what kind of relationship develops. We believe
single mothers who make contact with their child’s sperm donor when the child is youngmay be engaging in legally risky behaviour. If a donor becomes close to the child, he may702020 年度

IGS 国際セミナー（生殖領域）
第２回 ９月９日（水）提供精子・提供卵子による家族づくりとドナーリンク（血縁者さがし）
Family Building by Donor Conception and Donor Linking

be able to make a claim for visitation or parental rights, in which case a child could
potentially make a claim later to being a dependent.

10.
Hi, this is Chia-Ling Wu from Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University. It isgreat to attend this seminar online. I learned a lot from Deborah Dempsey’s fascinatingtalk. In Taiwan, the law requires anonymity of the donors. And the donated-sperm andeggs are allowed to result in one live birth (quota=1, possibly the lowest in the world).
So, there is no donor-sibling issue. Since 2007, The state built the registry of donors that
donor-conceived family can check for donor’s information when the donor-conceived
children get married or start the process of adoption, when them become adults. No one
has applied for the information. This is probably because most of the parents do not tell
the children they are donor-conceived, and these kids are still young, not yet reaching
the marriage age. The medical society believe that without the anonymity policy, no one
would like to donate. The anonymity policy also attracts some couples from Japan tocome to Taiwan to use DI.
A: Nice to hear from you, Chia-Ling. Glad you enjoyed the talk. This is very interesting! Ibelieve there is research that shows donors will still come forward if anonymity isabolished but I’m sure there are cultural variations that are relevant here.
11. ドナーが生まれた子どもの情報にアクセスした際に、子供自身が知らされていないということを言われたが、親から子どもへの告知は進んでいないのですか？
A:ほとんどの子どもたちが実は親から告知を受けていない。親にも告知を促すために、広報活動をしたが、1970 年代、1980 年代に提供を受けて子どもを持った親は、子どもに話すことをためらう人が多く、子どもに告げていない人が多い。

71

参加者からの質問とコメント

12
Our law only gives married couples to use ART. Therefore, most of the lesbian couples
and single women go abroad to do donor insemination, and some of them chose theprogram of donors that possibly reveal their information in the future. Because they
believe that the kids may easily know that they are born by ART, so there is a culture of
openness among the lesbian family. After the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2019,the state is considering to include married lesbian couples to have access to ART. Then,
there will be a conflict between the anonymity policy and the preference of transparent
information that some lesbian couples prefer, and experienced in other countries.
Therefore, I wonder, whether there are different attitudes among lesbian couples inAustralia. Secondly, I wonder whether after the new policy is initiated, does the numberof new donors decline?
A: Lesbian couples in Australia are also very open with their children about donor
conception. But when they conceive through clinics, they are not as interested asheterosexual single mothers in meeting or knowing a lot about the donor when theirchildren are young. A lot of lesbian women in Australia choose donors they know, andconceive outside the clinic system entirely. Because all sperm donation is identity
release in Australia, there is not the same conflict that you mention would be the casefor lesbian families in Japan (I think you are talking about Japan?).
Re. number of donors, some clinics say there is a big shortage whereas others do notseems to have as big a problem. Many people talk about a shortage of sperm donors inAustralia but this is not necessarily because of changes to the law. It does seem thatwhen you have an identity release policy in place, the donors tend to be older and may
not be as fertile.
In some Australian states, sperm is imported although in Victoria it is hard to importsperm due to the strict law.
Hope that answers your questions!
13.
クリニックによってドナーに関する情報提供の対応に大きな差があるというお話がありました。ドナーに関する情報提供を商売にしてしまうようなクリニックはありますか？また、それを制限するような法律はありますか？
You mentioned that there was a big difference among fertility clinics about provision ofdonor information. Are there any clinics that provide information about donors as
business purpose? Is there any law to prohibit it?

72

2020 年度

IGS 国際セミナー（生殖領域）
第２回 ９月９日（水）提供精子・提供卵子による家族づくりとドナーリンク（血縁者さがし）
Family Building by Donor Conception and Donor Linking

A: In Victoria, information requests are supposed to be dealt with by VARTA, thestatutory authority. In other states, clinics can form their own policies about how muchinformation they want to release, although they all need to conform to National Healthand Medical Research Council guidelines. Sperm donation in Australia is supposed to betreated as a ‘gift’ rather than a business, meaning it is not permitted to pay donors orgive out too much information about donors like they do in commercial clinics overseas.
This is quite a complicated question to answer so I’ll probably stop there.
14.
ドナーと子、異母兄弟、親とドナー、お互いの距離間の取り方をどのように支援者はアドバイスされているのでしょうか？ How supporters advised about keeping distances
between donors and donor-conceived children, half-siblings, recipent parents anddonors, and each other?
A: Counsellors play a big role as intermediaries in Victoria when people decide toconnect through the government registers. They usually advise people to take things
very slowly when reaching out and to expect that the other person might not want or beable to have a relationship or contact. People are well prepared for rejection, although it
is hard for the people that this happens to. It is a complex issue. Sometimes the linking
process goes very well, and most people are respectful of the other parties’ needs andwishes.
15.
ドナーと子どもとの仲介サービス（間を取り持つソーシャルワーク？）は機能していますか？
Is the intermediary service (social work?) between the donor and the child working?
A: There are many successful stories we have heard about but also some distressing
and painful ones. Indications are that among older parents who conceived through donor
insemination, they still find it very difficult to be open, particularly the fathers, and they
may find it very painful when their child wants to make contact with the donor.
16.
Could you tell me the ratio of single women as recipient parents of all recipients?
A: In Victoria, single heterosexual women and lesbian couples now outnumber
heterosexual couples as recipients of donor sperm, but I would need to have a look forthe exact numbers.
17.
What is/are the reason(s) for the sperm-donors to donate his/their sperm, anyway???
(in the first place)73

参加者からの質問とコメント

A: There are many reasons. Some men wanted to help infertile couples because theyknew someone who was infertile, some were students who were recruited throughadvertisements at their university and wanted the $20.00 payment for ‘expenses’. Many
medical students were recruited by their lecturers and senior doctors in the early days of
the Australian donor program. Some men were interested in knowing about their own
fertility or liked the idea of knowing they were very fertile. Wanting to help others is a bigreason.

74