A donor offspring, or donor conceived person, is conceived via the donation of sperm or ova, or both. In the case of embryo donation, the conceiving parents are a couple. Donor conceived people may never learn of their true birth origins as information about their true biological parent is not recorded on the birth certificate. However, many can get information through DNA testing. Donor conceived people may have many half siblings as a result of the same person's donations. With the significant increase in the numbers of donor-conceived individuals, many have questioned the ethics surrounding the technologies and human decisions surrounding donor conception, and there has been plenty of controversy. For example, the term "Snowflake baby" was coined in reference to unused frozen embryos that have been "adopted" by families. Pro-life advocates tend to support such adoptions. "ART Cycles" are not accurate as many people who use IVF do not report their births, and that there is no tracking or record keeping required for children born from sperm donation. Estimates of 30,000-60,000 often used are from estimates made with incomplete records from the mid 1980s.
Psychological and social
The psychological and social impacts of assisted reproductive technologies on donor-conceived children and their families has gained a great deal of interest in recent years as this population has continued to grow. An increasing number of family-support organizations strongly encourage parents to openly discuss their children's origins, whether through donor insemination or following treatment with donated gametes. Donor conceived people have fewer adolescence problems than children of divorce. For most sperm or egg recipients, the choice between anonymous sperm or egg donor and a non-anonymous one is generally not of major importance. For some donor conceived children, on the other hand, it may be psychologically burdensome not having the possibility of contacting or knowing almost nothing about the donor. Thus far, studies have found that a significant number of donor conceived children want information about their donor.
Donor and sibling tracking
There are donor sibling registries matching genetic siblings and donors. However, with modern information technology, there are other ways of getting information. One study estimated that approximately 67% of donor conceived children in adolescence with an identity-release donor plan on contacting him when they are eighteen years old.
Registries
Donor registration facilitates donor conceived people, sperm donors, and egg donors establishing contact with genetic relatives. They are mostly used by donor conceived people to find genetic half-siblings from the same egg or sperm donor. Some donors are non-anonymous, but most are anonymous, i.e. most donor conceived people don't know the identity of their donors. Still, they may be able to obtain unique donor numbers or known donor characteristics, e.g. hair, eye, and skin colors, from fertility clinics to find matched genetic half-siblings.
Many clinics and sperm banks offer non-anonymous donors, where donor conceived people may get the identity of their donors. However, an Australian study concluded that potential donors who would still be willing to donate without a guarantee of anonymity were not automatically more open to contact with offspring. Most potential donors would be willing to meet offspring in a single contact.
DNA testing
However, even sperm donors who have not initiated contact through a registry are now increasingly being traced by their offspring, and in the current era there can be no such thing as guaranteed anonymity. Through the advent of genetic genealogy and DNA databases, it is now possible for "anonymous" sperm donors to be identified. Possibly the first such case was in 2005, when it was revealed in New Scientist magazine that a fifteen-year-old had used information from a DNA test and the Internet to identify and contact his sperm donor. In 2018, it was reported that DNA testing has led to a significant increase in donor-conceived people finding their siblings and sperm donors.
