To tell or not to tell - what parents think about telling their children that they were born following donor insemination

Abstract

Pioneering legislation regarding donor insemination was introduced in Sweden in 1985. The law gives the child, upon reaching sufficient maturity, the right to obtain information about the donor and his identity. One hundred and forty-eight Swedish couples with children conceived through donor insemination after the law was introduced have answered questions about disclosure and donation in a questionnaire. This article addresses the reasoning employed by individual couples in their decision whether or not to inform the children about their origin. Parental reflections on their decision and the children's reactions to receiving this information are also presented.

Five categories of parental arguments are reported. These included ‘reasons to tell’, ‘reasons not to tell’, ‘reasons why the question about telling or not would not be answered at all’, ‘inconclusive types of reasoning, that can still influence the fundamental decision’ and ‘context-dependent reasons associated with actual circumstances’. Through this meta-dassification of arguments it was possible to identify clues to how professionals could facilitate parental decision-making and promote disclosure.

Parents who had informed their children did not regret their decision. All of the parents who responded to the question of whether it had been beneficial to the child to tell answered ‘yes’.

Key Words:

• donor insemination
• donor insemination parents
• infertility
• donor insemination children
• openness