The daughter of a sperm donor
tells her story.
where donor conception is concerned, everyone focuses on the "parents" -- the adults who can make choices about their own lives. The recipient gets sympathy for wanting to have a child. The donor gets a guarantee of anonymity and absolution from any responsibility for the offspring of his "donation." As long as these adults are happy, then donor conception is a success, right?
Not so.
The children born of these transactions are people, too. Those of us in the first documented generation of donor babies -- conceived in the late 1980s and early '90s, when sperm banks became more common and donor insemination began to flourish -- are coming of age, and we have something to say.
She gravitates to other fatherless kids --and feels jealous even of their absent and dysfunctional dads. She tracks down the donor, of whom she says:
I'm certain he has no idea how big a role he has played in my life despite his absence -- or because of his absence.
The point of the piece is that no one thinks of the implications for the kids. But of course,
someone has (see #2376),
many times over. Curtsy:
NLT.
