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Authority confirms parents will be powerless to stop children finding out they’re donor-conceived

Tom Elliott
Article image for Authority confirms parents will be powerless to stop children finding out they’re donor-conceived

Neil Mitchell had to ask the question at least half a dozen times, but the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority has confirmed parents will be powerless to stop their children from finding out they’re donor-conceived.

It’s news John fears “will smash his family apart”.

A recent VARTA report revealed some donors who believed they were contributing to research actually have a number of biological children.

They’re now able to make contact with those children if they wish.

John (not his real name) and his wife have 35-year-old and 45-year-old children and subsequent grandchildren, who don’t know John isn’t biologically related to them.

“We are living on a knife’s edge, we were never going to tell them and we just feel like it’s going to smash our family apart,” an emotional John said on Tuesday.

He doesn’t want them to find out.

And while she did her best to avoid the question, VARTA chief Louise Johnson eventually confirmed he could do nothing to stop it, if the donor wanted to make contact.

Neil Mitchell: “Why is this so difficult? Is that not correct? Under the law, it can’t be stopped. You are obliged – if the donor wants – to contact the offspring.”

Louise Johnson: “That is correct. We are obliged to contact the offspring.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview

Tom Elliott
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