“With the lifting of the anonymity of gamete donations, France is finally giving donors their rightful place”

AAt the end of debates that lasted three years, the revision of the bioethics laws was voted in August 2021. On 1^is September, access to their origins for people born thanks to a donation of gametes having reached majority comes into force. In concrete terms, sperm and oocyte donors will now be informed in advance that children born thanks to their donation will be able, if they so wish, at the age of majority, to access their identity (surname, first name, date of birth) and to non-identifying data concerning them (age and general condition at the time of the donation, family and professional situation, physical characteristics, reasons for the donation).

This text will apply under the wind of two false beliefs. The first is that this new law will concern donations made in the past. However, in accordance with article 2 of the Civil Code, it will not have “point of retroactive effect”. The identity of people who donated their sperm or eggs before 1^is September 2022 will remain secret, unless they decide a posteriori to communicate their identity and their non-identifying information on their own initiative, or if they accept the request made by the people resulting from these donations.

Read also PMA, GPA, access to origins… What changes (or not) the bioethics law in ten situations

The second false belief is that donors will now be required to meet people conceived through their donation: they will remain free, if they wish, to refuse any contact. What the law guarantees is the right to access one’s origins, not the right to meet the donor.

Elsewhere, donations have not dropped

Two main reasons were given by those who campaigned once morest lifting anonymity – and both, once more, are wrong.

For professionals in medically assisted procreation (PMA) and the collection of gamete donations, secrecy had the advantage of encouraging people to donate: they therefore anticipated, once the law changed, a significant reduction in the number of donations. . We knew, however, during the debate, that in Sweden, Australia, Finland or the United Kingdom, which have experienced the same legislative development, the number of donations has not only increased, but has even exceeded the initial level. This is what the results of the research on the subject cited in theimpact study of the bill on bioethics of the National Assembly. A drop in the number of donations had indeed been noted in Sweden following the lifting of the secrecy on the identity of the people who gave, but this had been short-lived – and that was in 1985, another era!

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