A special story in the news:for the first time a Dutch child has succeeded in tracing the anonymous sperm donor who is her father. How does something like this work?
In 2004 a law was introduced that makes it possible for donor children to contact their biological father from the age of 16. In the Netherlands it has been illegal to donate sperm anonymously since then, but until 2004 it was possible to donate sperm anonymously. It is estimated that 40,000 children were born through anonymous donorship during that time.
'The anonymity that was promised in the past is no longer worth anything in these times,' says family researcher Els Leijs in de Volkskrant. This is because there are more and more possibilities to compare DNA. Commercial databases are becoming increasingly popular, especially in America. They also test much more extensively, making it possible to make matches with distant relatives.
For example, a 32-year-old woman (child of an anonymous sperm donor) sent tubes with cheek mucus to three commercial DNA banks last year. One of those databases was able to match her with an Australian woman, the grandniece of her donor father.
Curious about the article about the child who finds her anonymous donor father? You can read it in the Volkskrant.
