Gamete Donation Conception and Disclosure to Children : Towards an Evaluation of the Practices

Assisted reproductive techniques (ART) is very framed in France by principles initially stated by the french CECOS Federation of (Centre d'Etude et de Conservation des Oeufs et du Sperme) and then included in the bioethic law. Since 1973, more than 50 000 births have been achieved through sperm donation, and the investigators have little knowledge of what information parents pass on to their children about how they have conceived. However, it is accepted that the secrecy about the use of donated gametes has negative consequences.

The investigators propose an original project never initiated in France, to evaluate at the national level the disclosure to the people conceived using donated gametes, thanks to an interdisciplinary research crossing medical approach (biology, psychology) and social sciences (anthropology, sociology). It uses a quantitave and qualitative approach relying on one hand on online questionnaires and on the other hand on semi-structured interviews, aimed at parent who have used ART with donated gametes and people conceived using donated gametes. This dual approach will outline broad trends in sharing information about the use of donated gametes, explore in depth the motivation of parental choices for information, and better understand the family and biographical dynamics associated with information sharing or its absence. Moreover, this project will lead to evaluate the way in which the parents received the messages of the professionnals involved in ART with donation gametes, in terms of disclosure to offspring.

The conclusions will highlight the most important elements that will be useful to the professionnals involved in gamete donation to help them improve their practices upstream, during, and after the completion of the ART with gamete donation.