Donor-conceived people will soon have a choice in accessing information about their donor and genetic siblings after new donor conception laws introduced by the Malinauskas Labor Government successfully passed State Parliament.
Changes to the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988 will allow parents of donor-conceived children and donor-conceived people over 18 years to access information regarding their genetic heritage and relatives.
Donors will also have access to information about people born as a result of their donation, where consent has been provided.
Speaking in support of this bill at Parliament House, State Member for Light and Labor Duty Member for Schubert, Tony Piccolo MP said this corrects a wrong on a whole generation of children who are now adults.
“It enables these adults to share their history with their children and grandchildren, and also access important medical and genetic information,” Mr Piccolo said.
“They had no choice about how they are conceived or about getting that information and forming their identity, and while some may be comfortable with that, the majority aren’t – now they get a choice.
“It is recognised that historical donors made donations on the understanding they would remain anonymous. However, it is important to note that these amendments place no requirement on any donor to have contact with a donor-conceived offspring.”
Mr Piccolo also applauded and thanked Donor Conceived Australia’s South Australia Lead Representative and Donor Conception Reference Group representative Damian Adams for the lengths he and his group went through which led to this bill being drafted; lobbying to State and Federal representatives for over two decades.
“After a culmination of over 20 years of advocacy for this change, this legislation finally means that donor-conceived people will no longer be discriminated against based on their mode of conception or some arbitrary date of when they were born,” Mr Adams said.
“Subsequently they will have the same rights as every other South Australian.
“But more importantly, all donor-conceived people can now know who their entire family is, know where they came from, be able to fully form their identity, have access to vitally important familial medical history, and be able to prevent consanguineous relationships forming with siblings or other close relatives.”