Against the National Gamete Donation Trust

The National Gamete Donation Trust (NGDT) is a UK organisation existing to encourage sperm and egg donation. I consider this highly irresponsible. In the eyes of many donor-conceived people their sperm or egg donor is their parent. These donor-conceived people feel that they have been abandoned.

Sperm and egg "donors" ask "Do I have any rights or responsibilities towards a child created from my donation?". NGDT answers in the negative: "Not if you donate through an HFEA-licensed clinic, which must conform to strict medical, legal and ethical standards."

This is not the way many donor-conceived people feel. Although a "sperm donor" might be told he has no legal responsibilities to his children, they are still his children! He has an ethical obligation to be responsible for them. His children want him to be responsible for them. Giving away to someone else the power to create your children is hugely irresponsible.

A sperm bank says "You have no responsibility towards these children. They are not your children." The sperm bank is not in a position to decide who is a father. It is the donor-offspring themselves who are in a position to decide who is their father. Sperm donors are fathers.