Anonymous sperm donation in Germany is over

In Germany the days of anonymous sperm donation are now officially over. The German Supreme Court has settled a patchwork of decisions and ruled that children of any age may request the identity of their  biological father. "There is no specific minimum age necessary for the child," the judges said. Parents may  make a request on behalf of the child.

But there is the only limitation - the parents (usually the mother) must be able to prove that the child wants to know and that the effect of disclosure upon the donor must be taken into account. However the decision stated that the right of children to know the identity of their fathers normally outweighs the donors’ right to privacy.

The case was brought by sisters aged 12 and 17 who had been denied access to their sperm donor father’s identity. Their parents had waived a right to access at the time of conception. The status quo of German legislation was that children can only access this information when they are 16. However the Supreme Court said that children begin to ask questions about their origins as early as kindergarten.

According to studies, since the 1970s, an estimated 100,000 children have been born from sperm donation in Germany.

Source: bioedge.org

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