30 Girls, 1 Cup
A South Australian reproductive health expert is worried that children of lesbian parents could be committing incest unknowingly in Adelaide, because of a lack of donor regulation in the state.
Former chair of the SA Council on Reproductive Technology, Professor Andrew Dutney, says there are sperm donation cases where one man has fathered 30 children to lesbian couples, and another man 29.
Dutney believes that in a “big country town” like Adelaide, the possibility of the families socialising and their children unknowingly committing incest is a real possibility.
Professor Dutney told the Adelaide Advertiser that South Australian regulations were at fault, not the parents or donors. He says that excluding gay and lesbian couples from reproductive technology forces couples to find children outside the ‘system’. This lack of regulation he says, means half-siblings living in the same city have a greater chance of meeting and are possibly unaware they are related.
“The effect of our regulations here in South Australia is that they produce unregulated donor conception, whereas a system with a lighter touch would bring a whole lot more parents and children into the light,” Professor Dutney told local papers.
“The situation at the moment is that … by adhering to the SA legislation, clinics have to be in breach of the national code. Under SA’s legislation, anonymity is guaranteed while under the national code of ethics, the child’s access to knowledge has to be provided.”
Currently only heterosexual couples and those suffering from infertility can legally access fertility treatment.
Leonie Hewitt an Adelaide mother, whose child shares the same father as 28 others, says there needs to be consistent national legislation to avoid what Professor Dutney has warned.
“We need to protect people who are conceived through donations whether in straight or homosexual families, we need to protect those children. We need national harmonising legislation that protects human rights,” says Hewitt, who is also the spokeswoman for the Sydney-based Donor Conception Support Group of Australia.
Your Thoughts
Hey there, you need to be logged in to get involved with SameSame, click here to login if you're already a member, or here if you need to become a new member.
ActionAmber
said on the 14th Oct, 2008