DNA testing for the donor conceived
From ISOGG Wiki
ISOGG highly recommends that donor-conceived individuals, adoptees and others with sensitive matters work with experienced search organizations prior to making contact with biological families.
Contents
- 1 Websites and resources
- 2 Australia
- 3 Belgium
- 4 Canada
- 5 France
- 6 Germany
- 7 Ireland
- 8 Netherlands
- 9 New Zealand
- 10 UK
- 11 US
- 12 Blogs
- 13 Success stories
- 14 Facebook groups
- 15 Facebook pages
- 16 Mailing lists
- 17 Books
- 18 Videos and tutorials
- 19 Podcasts
- 20 Further reading
- 21 Perspectives
- 22 Academic papers
- 23 See also
This page provides information and resources on DNA testing for the donor conceived. The search techniques used by the donor conceived are generally the same as those used by adoptees. For details of the methodology see the article on utilizing DNA testing to break through adoption roadblocks.
Websites and resources
General
- International Principles for Donor Conception and Surrogacy
- Donor Children A social network "connecting the sperm/egg/embryo ‘donor’ conceived community".
- Donor Conception Network A UK-based charity offering emotional and social support to donor conception families in the UK and throughout the world through advice, meetups, WhatsApp groups, bespoke counselling, books, workshops and conferences. The DCN publishes a wide range of books and DVDs which are available internationally.
- DNA Adoption A website providing support and resources for people using DNA to help with unknown parentage searches. The website includes a useful series of search steps which explain the methodology used for working with DNA matches and building family trees.
- Donor Sibling Registry A fee-based registry for donor conceived individuals to connect with siblings.
- We Are Donor Conceived. A resource center for donor-conceived people around the globe where they can "share their stories with each other and the general public in order to inspire greater understanding about the unique challenges" they face.
- AmFor Donor Offspring Registry
- Donor Conceived Project at Family Tree DNA
- International Donor Offspring Alliance
- Donor Offspring Europe
- Searching for My Sperm Donor Father
- Severance Magazine An "online magazine/community for people who've been separated from biological family or have had surprising DNA test results. It's for NPEs (Not parent expected), adoptees, donor conceived individuals and others who struggle with issues related to genetic identity".
Australia
- Are You Donor Conceived?
- Australian Donor Conception Network
- Donor Conception and Beyond: A step by step guide for Australians
- Victorian Assisted Reproduction Authority
Belgium
Canada
France
Germany
Ireland
- Anonymous gamete donation to be banned in Ireland by Grace O'Regan, BioNews, 16 July 2018
Netherlands
- Donor Detectives
- Donor Detectives Facebook page
- Information about donor conception and using consumer DNA databases from FIOM
- Missing side A donor child's search for her "missing side".
New Zealand
- Donor Conceived Aotearoa An education, support and advocacy organisation in New Zealand, set up to help people understand the needs and perspectives of donor-conceived people.
- Finding a child or parent on the sperm and egg donor list
UK
ISOGG Wiki articles for donor-conceived people and donors from the UK:
- The legal situation for the donor conceived in the UK
- Fertility clinics in the UK
- Information for donor-conceived people: getting ready to search
- Information for donor-conceived people: getting ready for contact
- Support and information for donor-conceived people
- Information for donors: getting ready for contact with donor offspring
US
- US Donor Conceived Council An organisation which "strives to increase awareness of the needs, interests, and challenges of donor conceived people and advance change that promotes and protects their health, welfare, and human rights".
- Facebook page for the US Donor Conceived Council
Blogs
- Confessions of a Cryokid
- Fathers Anonymous
- Lippert's Children - Was Your Child Fathered by Thomas Lippert?
- Olivia's view - A blog from one of the co-founders of the Donor Conception Network
Success stories
- Lost girls. 23andMe blog, 19 March 2014. The stories of 23andMe customers who have found family through DNA testing.
- How I found and lost my donor Undated article by Rose on the Victoria Assisted Reproduction Treatment Authority (VARTA) website.
- 'Hero' Wellington scientist helps find dad who made 800 sperm donations. The Dominion Post, 2 June 2015.
- Elizabeth Howard: A daughter’s detective story for Father’s Day. The Conservative Woman, 19 June 2016.
Facebook groups
- Donor Conceived Best Practices and Connections
- Australian Donor Conceived People
- DNA for the Donor Conceived (DNA Detectives)
- Donor Children Australia
- Donor Conceived Offspring, Siblings and Parents Facebook group
- Donor Deceived A support group for individuals who have found that they are the offspring of their mother's doctor.
- Worldwide Donor Conceived People Network (an exclusive group restricted to donor children)
- Australian Donor Conceived People Network
- DNA Detectives (for help with interpretation of DNA results)
- Search Squad (for help with the genealogy)
- Aussie and UK Angels
- Donor Offspring Registry
- We are Donor Conceived
Facebook pages
- Donor Children
- Donor Conception and Beyond: A step by step guide for Australians
- Donorkinderen België
Mailing lists
- DNA Adoption Google Group A group helping people with unknown parentage searches.
Books
- Peter J Boni. Uprooted: Family Trauma, Unknown Origins, and the Secretive History of Artificial Insemination, Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2022.
- Sarah Dingle. Brave New Humans: The Dirty Reality of Donor Conception. Hardie Grant Books, 2021.
- Wendy Kramer. Donor Family Matters: My Story of Raising a Profoundly Gifted and Donor-Conceived Child, Redefining Family and Building the Donor Sibling Registry. 2020.
- Dani Shapiro. "Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love. Alfred A Knopf, 2019.
- Sonia Allen. Donor Conception and the Search for Information: From Secrecy and Anonymity to Openness. Routledge, 2018. Includes a detailed overview of regulatory approaches around the world.
- Karen Bali. Researching Adoption: An Essential Guide to Tracing Birth Relatives and Ancestors. Family History Partnership, 2015.
- Richard Hill. Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA. Createspace, 2012.
Videos and tutorials
- The Donor Detectives
- Generation Cryo (US only)
- AncestryDNA: More tips for identifying biological family by Crista Cowan, AncestryDNA, 19 January 2016
- The search for biological family AncestryDNA, 19 June 2014.
Podcasts
- Half of me podcast A podcast from Allie who discovered in January 2019 as a result of a DNA test that she was donor conceived. Since then she has discovered her donor and fourteen half siblings. The podcast documents her journey into discovering what role DNA relationships play in her life and what family really means.
- DIBS: Welcome to the family A regular podcast from a donor-conceived individual with lesbian parents.
Further reading
- DNA - Donors Not Anonymous by Wendy Kramer, Psychology Today, 28 November 2022.
- Desperately seeking kin: genetic longing in the donor gamete context by Diane Tober, Los Angeles Review of Books, 4th February 2019.
- Personal genetic testing and the implications for the donor conception community by Debbie Kennett, BioNews, 26 February 2018.
- A brief history of donor conception by Wendy Kramer, HuffPost blog, 10 May 2017.
- DNA = Donors Not Anonymous by Wendy Kramer, Huffington Post, 25 November 2015
- A collection of articles from The Guardian on sperm donation
Perspectives
- Donor conceived or pre-conception adopted
- Donor conception at the United Nations. 2019 was the 30th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. For the first time a group of donor-conceived and surrogate-born people were given the chance to share their testimonies in a special meeting as a part of a conference to celebrate the anniversary.
- Anonymous Us A website where those who have been affected by third party reproduction can share their experiences.
- HeyReprotech Newsletter Archive Stories from the reproduction industry
- Relatively speaking - a tale of DNA testing A personal story from a woman who learnt of her donor origins after testing at 23andMe.
- I took the 23andMe test and it changed everything I thought I knew about myself and my family Gin and Sin blog, 9 August 2017. A personal account in six parts from a woman who learnt about her donor origins after taking a 23andMe test.
- The overlooked fatherless: one donor-conceived woman's story by Alana Newman, Institute for Family Studies, 26 October 2016.
Academic papers
- Darroch F and Smith I (2021). Establishing identity: how direct-to-consumer genetic testing challenges the assumption of donor anonymity. Family Court Review 59(1):103-120.
- Leetz KL (2018). An unanticipated outcome of a DNA ancestry test. 'American Journal of Psychiatry 175(12): 1167-1168.
- Pacey M (2018). No more secrets in the genomic age. Human Fertility 21 (8).
- Crawshaw M (2017). Direct-to-consumer DNA testing: the fallout for individuals and their families unexpectedly learning of their donor conception origins. Human Fertility 7, Published online: 11 Jul 2017.
- Harper J, Kennett D, Reisel D (2016). The end of donor anonymity. Human Reproduction 31 (6): 1135-1140.
- Sabatelllo M (2015). Regulating gamete donation in the U.S.: ethical, legal and social implications. Laws 4(3), 352-376.
- Donor conception and adoption. A special issue of the Australian Journal of Adoption (2013; 7(2) published in memory of Narelle Grech (1982 - 2013).