Govt backs egg and sperm donor ID

14 Aug 2012, 8:13 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Last year a Senate committee handed down 32 recommendations, chief among them a proposal to introduce a national registry to contain donor information. (Getty Images)

Last year a Senate committee handed down 32 recommendations, chief among them a proposal to introduce a national registry to contain donor information. (Getty Images)

The federal government has backed a Senate committee's calls for Australians conceived through sperm or egg donations to identify their donors but has handballed the issue to the states and territories.

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The federal government has backed a Senate committee's calls for Australians conceived through sperm or egg donations to identify their donors but has handballed the issue to the states and territories.

Last year a Senate committee handed down 32 recommendations, chief among them a proposal to introduce a national registry to contain donor information.

The recommendation, if implemented, would allow donor-conceived people to find out who their donor is once they turn 18 years old.

It also recommended donors not be able to identify their offspring unless the children gave their consent and siblings to have to give their approval to be identified to their half-brothers
or sisters.

In its response to the committee recommendations, the federal government said it supported the recommendations in principle but it was a matter for states and territories.

An estimated 60,000 people in Australia have been conceived through donor practices yet there is no legislation in place in Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT to regulate donor conception.

The Federal Government did agree with the committee's recommendations that any register, if not retrospective, could be made voluntary, to allow donors who had donated anonymously to agree to disclose their information.

Egg Donation

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