Counseling of donors
This is an important stage of sperm donation. Counseling provides an opportunity for the donors to discuss any concerns about donation and for the counselors to ensure that they fully understand the implications of donating their sperm. Several points are worth considering and may be discussed in counseling sessions.
- All prospective donors should be offered adequate counseling, but they are not obliged to accept it.
- Sperm donors should be comfortable with their decision and in donating their sperm they must renounce all rights to them.
- The woman who gave birth to the child is the mother of the child.
- In the past, sperm donors remained anonymous from the parents and the child produced by the donated sperm. However, in the United Kingdom in 2005, the law regarding donor anonymity changed. Anyone born from donated sperm after April 1 2005 can apply to HFEA to obtain information about the identity of the donor, once they have reached 18 years of age or earlier if contemplating marriage.
- The donor should be informed of the social, psychological and legal uncertainty and the risk that a birth may not occur.
- The sperm donor must accept that he may have genetic offspring's whose existence or characteristics will not be disclosed.
- Sperm donor should feel free to withdraw from the program at any time without the threat of financial penalty or fear of recrimination.
- In the United Kingdom, The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is required by law to keep on its own register information about individuals who donate sperm and patients who receive donated sperm.
- Sperm donor has no responsibility or right toward the child, emotionally, financially or legally.
- Sperm donor has no right to know to know the identity of a couple or a child conceived after the use his donated sperm.
- Donor sperm will not normally be used once the number of children believed to have been born from them has reached certain number in order to decrease the chance of offspring intermarriage (the number varies between different countries, for example it is 10 in the UK, 25 in Holland and 5 in France). The limit is set as families, rather than the number of children, so parents can choose the same donor for a second or third sibling without being told that donor has reached his limit.