Allowing the children of sperm or egg donors to find the identity of their donor parents will mean fewer donors 
and greater expense, according to an IVF practioner with a leading Dublin clinic.
Speaking to a conference on Assisted Human Reproduction at the Royal College of Surgeons at the weekend, Graham Coull, a laboratory director with the Sims clinic in Dublin, said banning anonymous donors would lead to higher costs, according to an Irish Times report.
Breda O’Brien of The Iona Institute took part in a roundtable discussion at the conference.
Currently, the area of assisted human reproduction is not regulated in Ireland but according to The Irish Times, 500 children are born here each year as a result of donor sperm and eggs, mostly from abroad.
In 2005, the Commission on Assisted Human Reproductions made a series of recommendations on regulating the fertility industry. Among their recommendations was that children conceived by donor eggs or sperm should have the right to information about their donor parents on reaching maturity.
However, Mr Coull said that such a move “will limit the supply of donors”.
“Identifiable donors are up to 60 per cent more expensive than anonymous ones because there are fewer available,” he said.
“That will push the price of treatment up. Because there is no financial provision from the State, this could exclude many who can barely afford it now.”
However, Helen Browne, the chair of the National Infertility Support and Information Group, said it was in the best interests of children to be able to identify a donor in later life. She said many parents were receiving donor material from Spain – where anonymity of donors is enshrined in law – because there was a short waiting time rather than because of its laws over anonymity.
“From speaking to people in our group, we feel there should be a process like adoption so people know what’s involved and can consider ethical issues like telling their children and how to deal with challenges in the future.”
The UK Government’s move to ban anonymous sperm and egg donation followed a case taken by Dr Joanna Rose, herself conceived by sperm donation, won a case in the British High Court in 2005. The Court found that donor-offspring had the right under the Human Rights Act to know their donor parents.
Dr Rose has spoken at a number of Iona Institute events about her experience as a donor-conceived person unable to find out about her donor father.
While there is no law on the use of donor sperm or eggs in Ireland, few people outside of families or close friends donate their genetic material, according to experts.
This may be down to legal uncertainty over the links between donors, recipient parents and children. Tony O’Connor, a senior counsel who has advised on several cases in this area, said that while legal contracts may be drawn up between a donor and a recipient, these provisions did not apply to a child.
In the absence of any legislation, he warned of potential complications when it comes to succession rights for donor-conceived children, given that our existing laws never envisaged these issues. “In adoption law, we have regulated this area. But there is no provision in legislation outside of that . . . the State is not owning up to its responsibilities,” he said.