A court in Germany has ruled that children conceived via sperm donation have a right to know the identity of their biological father at any age and do not have to wait until they are 16 as was previously the case.

The forthcoming Children and Family Relationships Bill here in Ireland makes children wait until they are 18 before they can know the identity of their sperm donor father. In Ireland most donor sperm is imported from overseas.

According to Deutsche Welle, a German news agency, there are currently 100,000 children of sperm donors in Germany.

Deutsche Welle reports that the new court ruling “came after two sisters, 12 and 17 years old, appealed to the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe after a reproductive clinic refused to provide their father’s identity. The girls’ legal parents signed a document saying that they didn’t want to know the name of the sperm donor.

“However, as the children grew older, their parents, acting as the girls’ legal representatives, decided to retrieve information on the sperm donor and appealed to the state court in Hannover. The court rejected the appeal and said a disclosure of identity would be possible only after the children turned 16. The girls then took their case to the Federal Court of Justice”, where the matter was decided in their favour.

A growing number of ethical questions have arisen with respect to egg and sperm donation and whether the practice should be banned altogether as an automatic violation of the rights of a child to be raised by their biological parents whenever possible.

In Germany only sperm donation is permitted, not egg donation.