i agree that medical histories should be provided but for people to be able to track you down years later will mean that some people just wont donate and that can cause an issue in years to come with lack of donations.

That would be a definite bolt out of the blue for him and his wife.

When the guy donated the sperm did they take details of medical history as apparently they do now. I am thinking if he did have any medical problems whether it would have impacted on the reseach or the children who were born as a result of his sperm being illegally used. With the donor system now my belief is if he has genetic medical problems no donation should be allowed.

Thank heavens this cannot happen in this day and age. A shock for him, but so many families are so grateful

OMG what a shock and how do they cope with that now. 8 children from varying families.

That must have been a shock for him and his wife.

Wow! That’d be really weird for him. That being said, it wouldn’t be as if he is really a father, only biologically.

What a shock that would have been.

Mmmm well the way I see it is eight beautiful humans were created and otherwise would not have been born!Decietful it was but that’s the risk of donating sperm!You never no where it may end up,regardless of what you were informed that it would be used for at the time!Im pretty certain that every sperm donor has had a thought or a what if moment after their donation!A life is a life no matter how you came to be here!One can only imagine the joy and love these children have given childless couples????

No doubt. The rules have changed on sperm donation but it is a tricky and complicated situation. We thought we may have to use donor sperm and the process mentally and the psych sessions to see if we could handle it, and all it entails were so intense. Noone knows what the future brings, and since we were in the process, the rules have changed. Thankfully, we didn’t need to go with that option in the end.

Just the start of the complications technology has brought and will bring. This weeks topic in year 10 science is the ethics of genetic research and an essay about why Australian law should be changed to allow gene editing on embryos: that is the scary stuff about designer babies and technology that isn’t quite there yet with splitting and re-joining dna, along with promising miracle cures for some diseases… the class seems to have to argue for change to law. I’m not sure they have all got the subtle issues that we can’t predict and the need to proceed with more caution than ever.

Probably it was, jennyw. But maybe some men will never find out. 🙁

This is just terrible for all involved and it makes you wonder if the same has happened to others.

Unbelievable that this is done without their consent !

That’s terrible! Of course they were not allowed to donate his sperm, weren’t they? And so you find out you have 8 kids. How do you go on? Terrible for the kids who wanted to find out who their father was, but also for this man whose donation was not supposed to be used this way!!