英文标识捐精和卵子者打开潘多拉盒子v13n2-412.pdfVIP

IDENTIFYING SPERM AND EGG DONORS: OPENING PANDORA ’S BOX * Mary Kate Kearney INTRODUCTION Children are the genetic product of their biological parents. Most people take for granted knowledge of their biological origins. Part of their identity is based on an awareness of who their biological parents are: their parents’ names, ethnic and religious origins, medical and social history, and ancestral history. This is often not true for two groups: adoptees and offspring of egg or sperm donors. Adoptees usually do not know either of their birth parents; donor children typically do not know one of them. The anonymity of the adoption and donation process has been challenged, but current laws have protected confidentiality in both processes to varying degrees. Adoption and donation implicate various parties’ interests, and those parties have different reasons for either wanting or not wanting the process to remain anonymous. The competing sets of interests in adoption and donation raise challenging and complicated questions about how to balance matters of privacy against a right to information about such a basic matter—the identity of a person’s biological parent(s). This Article examines those interests in answering the question of whether sperm or egg donees have a right to know their donor’s identity. Part I of the Article examines the right to know the identity of a biological parent(s) in the adoption context. It considers the interests of the involved parties and concludes that the status quo of keeping adoption records