開催報告

開催報告【International IGS Seminar】

Family Building by Donor Conception and Donor-linking● Date/Time:

September, 9, 2020, 12:15–13:45 (JST)/2:15–15:45 (AEDT)● Venue:

Online (Zoom Webiner)● Presenter

Deborah DEMPSEY (Associate Professor, Swinburne University of Technology)
Presentation title:“Families of Strangers? Donor-linked families in Victoria, Australia”●Moderator

Yukari SEMBA (Project Research Fellow, IGS, Ochanomizu University)●Language

English (Consecutive interpreting in Japanese)● Number of Attendatees

101

Abstract
Consistent with the view that donor-conceived people benefit from access to identifying information on
their sperm and egg donors, an increasing number of countries including Australia have introduced lawsthat mandate identity-release donors. The law of the state of Victoria, Australia, allows all donor-conceived
people, donors, recipient parents, and descendants of donor-conceived people to apply for information oneach other, and all donor-conceived people can access their donors' identifying information if they want to.
In this seminar, Dr. Deborah Dempsey introduced donor linking in Victoria based on early findings fromthe Australian Research Council-funded project into donor-linked families and talked about supporting
donor-conceived people, gamete donors, and recipient parents and the challenges of the Victorian law. Afterher presentation, the participants had many questions and comments, and Dr. Dempsey answered them.
ReportOn September 9, 2020, we invited Dr. Deborah Dempsey from Swinburne University of Technology
and held an IGS seminar on “Family Building by Donor Conception and Donor-linking.” She started bytalking about the laws in Victoria and then introduced the research project that she is involved in: “Familyof Strangers? Donor-linked Families.”
Some jurisdictions in the world have abolished gamete donor anonymity over the last several decades
and have passed laws that secure donor-conceived people's right to know gamete donors' identifying

7622020 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

information. The state of Victoria is one of them. It enforced the Assisted Reproductive Treatment
Amendment Act 2016 in March 2017, making it possible for donor-conceived people to trace their gamete
donors regardless of when the donation occurred in Victoria. In addition, donors can submit an application
to find out information on the offspring born from their sperm in Victoria.
In Australia, there are at least two types of linking: statutory linking occurs through government-run
registers, and nonstatutory linking is when people obtain information from clinics or through direct consumer
genetic testing companies. The matches found are with donors, donor offspring, or half-siblings. The use ofgenetic testing has increased, and the results have successfully helped people find each other in Victoria. Dr.
Dempsey has also researched the applications made to donor registers; what information donors, donorconceived people, and recipient parents want; and the reasons for submitting these applications through theresearch project. She and her colleagues received different responses from the donors, donor-conceived
people, and recipient parents. The donor-conceived people tended to be more interested in the medical history
than the other parties were, but in general, all parties were interested in information that would provide asense of the whole person, such as the donor's personality, interests, hobbies, and likes and dislikes. Most of
the information seekers also wanted to contact the parties involved, for example, an email exchange or future
in-person meeting. Most of the recipient parents were single mothers, and they tended to want photos of thedonor at different ages.
Dr. Dempsey also talked about how fertility clinics participate in donor linking. She found that clinics
were involved in various activities. Some clinics were open to making it easy for people to connect, and otherclinics were more passive or reluctant and unwilling to outreach to other parties that were open to contact.
Thus, the most relevant point is that linking from the perspective of clinics was really about individual staff
members who are willing to take responsibility. Few clinics had policies on linking practices. Thus, she
posited that donor-conceived people and their parents had different access to information and support,
depending on which clinic was used for conception. Last, she mentioned the donors whom they spoke to and
who initiated applications. They had various reasons for applying, for example, mere curiosity and to know
how many offspring were born because of their donation. Many of them wanted to know what their donor
offspring looked like or were interested in what aptitudes and talents their donor offspring had. Per theVictoria law, donors can be informed of how many offspring their donation produced, but donor offspring
cannot obtain their half-sibling’s information. Thus, there was a response that donors submitted applications
because they wanted to contribute to the donor-conceived person's research on their half-siblings.
In Japan, donor anonymity and donor offspring's right to know are controversial topics. Many donorconceived people and recipient parents attended the seminar, and Dr. Dempsey answered their manyquestions

Reported by Yukari SEMBA
Project Research Fellow, IGS, Ochanomizu University77