By Richard Baines
Tasmania is one step closer to allowing donor-conceived children to contact their biological parents, after cross-party support for a parliamentary inquiry.
National guidelines were introduced in 2006 where all potential donors must agree to being identified, but those conceived before then do not have the same rights.
During an at-times heated debate in State Parliament last night, the Government supported Labor’s push for an inquiry into the matter.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson told Parliament it was an important issue.
“I can fortunately trace my own family back generations to the time that they arrived in Australia and even before that,” he said.
“Knowing where you came from and knowing your family history and your genetic history gives you a sense of belonging, of identity, of knowing where your home is and with whom you belong.
“Our identity is greatly shaped by our relationships with others, especially our family.”
Not knowing parents ‘can be really disturbing’
During the debate there was bickering around the inquiry’s reporting date and terms of reference.
It will report by the end of March next year.
Labor’s Lara Gidding, who put forward the inquiry proposal, was hoping the committee would report earlier.
“I was hoping we could have a report, even a preliminary report from the committee by October of this year, with the view that if the committee required more time that timeframe could have been extended,” she said.
Regardless, Ms Giddings said it was a promising step towards legislative change.
“For a donor-conceived child they may not know or ever have the ability to know who their parent was,” she said.
“That can be really disturbing for people.”
Ms Giddings hopes Tasmania follows Victoria’s lead with legislation allowing donor-conceived children to contact their biological parents.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Top Comments
I think donor children do have the right to know about their donor. The question is, what should they be legally allowed to know and what should be at the donor's discretion? 'I have a genetic blood disease' and 'Hey, I like playing guitar too!' are not the same thing. I think donors have the right to decide before meeting offspring exactly where they stand on how much or little of a relationship they want.
I'm on the fence with this one and perhaps some people may feel my thinking is skewed, HOWEVER, I think if you have given up a child for adoption (because abortion was not a legal option at the time), then those children DON'T necessarily have the right to know who the biological parents are. In the "older days" many women were forced to follow through with these pregnancies and many forced to give up their babies. If we, as a society, do not allow women to have full autonomy over our bodies (the choice to see through pregnancy and adopt out, or have an abortion), then I don't think we should be forcing women to meet children that they may NOT have wanted to birth. It may seem harsh but in these sorts of situations, I think it needs to be a case-by-case decision. I don't believe the rights of the adopted child to know their biological parents should automatically trump the rights of the parents.
Keeping secrets from their children is more about their own personal discomfort rather than their child's existential need to know their biological background (should they wish to find out). Women do have full autonomy over their bodies, but once a child is born than it too becomes an autonomous individual.