It is helpful for many donor conceived people to have information about their conception story to fill in the gaps and offer reassurance. Knowledge around the number of donations and possible existence of other half siblings, can help inform donor conceived persons on what to expect in the future and give them peace of mind. Any information you can give will be very much appreciated.
How many times did you donate in total and over what time period?
Which clinic(s) did you donate to and when?
How many brothers do you have and is there a possibility they may have donated too?
What can you remember about the communication from the clinics at the time?
- How was donating bought to your attention? Clinic advert/poster? Word of mouth? University course introduction?
- What was the registration process for becoming a donor at the clinics you visited? What medical tests were done on your samples at the time?
- Did they suggest your samples had resulted in any offspring?
- Are you aware that you have access to non identifying information about your offspring born post 1991 if you contact the HFEA? Would you be willing to do that so Edwina may know how many / sex split / ages etc from this time period?
- Were you invited to sign a consent form in 1991 allowing your offspring born after this time access to non identifying information about you?
- Did the clinics say that they would use fresh samples as well as frozen? When they confirmed they would be freezing your samples did they give a reason for why (eg medical testing). Did they state how long your samples would be frozen for and over what period of time for they would be used by recipient parents?
- Did they state that they had an upper limit ruling on families or donor offspring numbers created with your samples?
- Did you stipulate any demands about your donations to the clinic? Family set up of recipient parents? Maximum limit on offspring / families?
What was your motivation for donating (altruistic, interested in donor work either ethically or medically, financial benefit?)
Has donating generally been a positive, negative or neutral experience for you? How have your feelings changed about donating over the years? Have you thought about your donor conceived children and how you might react if they contacted you? How did this make you feel? Have you considered enrolling in commercial DNA sites to match with your offspring in the future?
Do your current family know? What are their attitudes to your donating and possible genetic offspring?
Would you be open to contact, either indirectly through Joanna Howe or directly with Edwina? (this can be just to share information that is mutually beneficial or can be an in-person meeting – whatever you feel comfortable with)
If you wish for no contact is there any specific reason for this? (eg. haven’t told family? Life circumstances? Other?) This information is helpful to know to understand why it might be difficult or inappropriate for contact at this time. Managing expectations and being supportive, whilst not creating an illusion of rejection is hugely important to the wellbeing of donor conceived people
Please can you draft a small bio about yourself? It would be great to get a sense of your personality. How would your friends describe you? Are you able to share a little about your profession, interests and hobbies?
Are you willing to provide some photographs of yourself throughout your life? Baby, toddler, child, teen, adult, now…..
Would it be possible to know a little about your immediate family tree? You can use non identifying names etc but it would be nice to know how many siblings you have, numbers of children etc. Are your parents still alive and could I have a photography of them?
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