Page 18 - FSANZ UPDATE Spring 2022

The ‘horrors’ of on-line semen donation
Australia is currently witnessing an increase in single women and female same sex couples choosing on-line semen donation without knowing the potential dangers, according to Rebecca Kerner, Chair of ANZICA.
She has called on fertility clinics to recognise and respond to these changes to encourage women seeking semen donations to make safer choices.
“We have a duty to seek new ways to provide more accessible forms of treatment off-line – in other words in licenced and accredited fertility clinics,” Rebecca said.
“Fertility counsellors have watched with mounting concern widespread media headlines about men providing on-line semen donations, in many cases multiple times, as women try to conceive without the safety net of properly regulated donor conception.
“As specialist counsellors and advocates of patient centred care, we don’t want to be bystanders watching in horror at the potential medical, legal and psychosocial ramifications that can occur through informal on-line semen donation arrangements.
“While it may appear to be quicker and easier to find a semen donor on-line for self-insemination at home, this choice may have immediate and long-term implications for individuals and couples trying to conceive in this way and their donor conceived children.
“Fertility specialists, including doctors, scientists, nurses and counsellors, all need to work together to help women recognise that what they are receiving from an on-line donor is an untested and unscreened semen sample that may not contain healthy sperm to create a pregnancy.
“Receiving on-line semen donations poses the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and genetic disorders.
“Women and their donors are often not aware that without an official legal agreement their donors may be legally recognised as the fathers of their children. This may include rights to parenting access, as well as the responsibility for financial child support. These legal dangers are avoided when a donation is organised through a fertility clinic.”
According to data from the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA), the biggest users of donor sperm are single women followed by same sex couples.
“If we are to change what is happening in these on-line cases, we need to begin by asking why,” Rebecca said.
“There has been a convergence of three factors. Firstly, a huge expansion in on-line activity that, for better or worse, means we have never been more connected.
“Secondly, there has been an increase in reproductive freedoms through the extension of rights for same sex couples and single women to create their families.
“Then there is, in my view, perhaps a failure in our clinical environment to respond quickly enough to the changing landscape in assisted reproduction – a landscape that has shifted from one that only focusses on meeting the needs of
Promoting a safer and legally regulated environment
heterosexual couples with an infertility issue to one that must acknowledge the rights and needs of other individuals and same sex couples to create their families.
“And one that recognises that not all of our patients may be coming with an infertility issue. This has led to the increase in these individuals seeking on-line semen donations.
“We need to ensure that people wanting to conceive by donor insemination come into accredited clinics, even after making contact with an on-line donor, so that they and their donor can be in a much safer and legally regulated environment.
“This will ensure thorough consideration of the needs of everyone involved, including the long-term outcomes for children born through donation.”
ANZICA has developed an information resource that details the benefits of using a licenced clinic for donor insemination and the pitfalls of on-line arrangements. It features in the patient centred care section of the FSANZ website www.fertilitysociety.com.au
“It is about helping fertility clinics collaborate with donors and recipients to provide a safer environment in which the on-line and off-line worlds come together for the benefit of all,” Rebecca explained.
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