Anonymous donor - parental rights with contact?

leenali

My partner and I used Fairfax Cryobank to conceive both of our children. At the time of our first pregnancy, the ID Consent option was not available, and therefore we had no expectations of contact with the donor - though it would we would have been glad to have that option. We registered on SiblingRegistry.com several months ago were recently contacted via this website by the person who appears to be our older son's donor. We have been proceeding cautiously with our dialogue with this person, making efforts to verify his identity as the donor etc., but are also very excited to potentially have access to more information about him for our son. One concern that has been raised is whether donors have any grounds for parental rights should he decide he wanted to pursue them. My understanding is that donors give up any legal option for parental rights during the donation process. In reading through the Fairfax Cryobank materials, however, it seems that may only hold true should the donor and recipient both remain anonymous. I know you cannot disclose specifics about the contracts that donors are asked to sign. It would be very helpful to know, however, if they sign anything about abdicating parental rights to the offspring resulting from their donation. Having clarity on this point would help us to determine our next steps with this donor. Thanks for any information you can provide on this matter.

Fairfax Cryobank

When a donor works directly with the sperm bank, their donor agreement acknowledges that they have no parental rights when it comes to the resulting children. That being said, parentage laws vary by state and often take into account the child’s age and the amount of time spent with a person to determine parentage. Because your donor was anonymous we are unable to provide any identifying information. We have encouraged all past donors for whom we have correct current contact information for to update their medical and personal profiles and that information is updated on the donor’s summary profile.

Best of luck.