The proper ins and outs of sperm donations in South Australia

Fertility SA specialists and staff are concerned over the Advertiser article “Sperm donation Australia: 100 women keen to have baby with Adam Hooper” written by Jackie Sinnerton (6 August 2022). The author, Ms Sinnerton, talks about one donor supplying multiple women, an unregulated practice.

Fertility SA acknowledge and accept that some women are comfortable with private arrangements for donor conception, however we also highlight that private arrangements remain unregulated and as such can present a genuine risk to all parties, including the donor conceived child.

Fertility SA provides emotional and psychological wellbeing supports for both our donors, and their recipients.

We consider it an important part of our role to create full awareness of the respectful obligations of both recipient and donor when undertaking this journey.

Our Fertility SA Councsellor Brooke Calo, draws your attention to the subsequent Adelaide Sunday Mail article title “Minefield opens amid surge in DIY online sperm donors“, where Australian and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association Chair, Rebecca Kerner said counsellors had ‘growing concern about men offering online semen donations as women tried to conceive without the safety net of regulated donor conception.’

Ms Kerner says, “There is also the stranger danger issue – Ms Kerner received a panicked phone call from a woman she had counselled who started down the online path and the man wanted to meet her alone in a hotel room to make his donation.”

At Fertility SA, we are dedicated to a compassionate and inclusive donor service who work with our clients to achieve a common goal – the birth of a thriving baby into a family.

Our well-established program adheres to the best practice standards and is compliant with relevant legislation, as outlined in the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC) Code of Practice, National Health Medical Research Committee (NHMRC) Ethical guidelines and Australian and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association (ANZICA) guidelines.

In SA and Victoria, donors going through fertility clinics are allowed to donate to a maximum of 10 families including their own, and each family may have more than one child.

There are many scenarios that bring people to the choice of needing, desiring or wanting a donor.

Some families are only made possible by the generous act of donation.

Current legislation and national ethical guidelines in Australia and New Zealand allow only for altruistic gamete donation.

This means that a donor (the individual who provides the donation) must not be paid but can be reimbursed for reasonable out of pocket costs. There is no financial gain to the donor.

Male donors are those people, such as Fertility SA Donor scenario ‘Patient D’, who grew up in a close family. He reached a point in his life where after achieving so much in his life educationally and in his chosen career pathway that he felt it was unlikely that he wanted to pursue a relationship and family of his own but wanted to give the opportunity for other families to achieve the same sort of close family he’d so cherished in his childhood. Sperm donation was a way for Patient D to feel he could contribute to the values he held about family by helping others fulfil their dreams of parenthood and family.

At the end of the day, we encourage you to explore and consider your options within a regulated, safe environment.