Gamete donation: current practices, public opinion, and unanswered questions

The Presentation of Donor Conception in Young Adult Fiction

“…Nineteen (61%) of the characters in these books are conceived by a single mother; eight (25%) donor-conceived children are conceived in a lesbian couple family; and the remaining four (13%) are conceived in a heterosexual-couple family. 6 If we assume the existing data about family type and reliance on donor conception to be correct (Nahata et al, 2017), single-mother families are overrepresented in these books, while lesbian-couple families and heterosexual-couple families are both slightly underrepresented. Because there are so few heterosexual-couple families into which children are conceived in these books, any statements about patterns will be very tentative.…”

“…Also estimated are the proportions of different kinds of family forms relying on donor conception. Today these estimates suggest that (and in contrast with the relatively recent past) the majority of those relying on donor sperm are single women (50%) followed by same-sex or transgender couples (33%) (Nahata et al, 2017). Heterosexual couples represent a small proportion (less than a fifth) of those relying on donor sperm today because recent technological advances have improved the possibility of conception occurring with a male partner's sperm even if his sperm count is very low.…”

“…Although conception with the assistance of donor sperm is a commonplace event in the United States, the precise number of births resulting from such conceptions remains unknown. Estimates suggest that there have been at least 60,000 such births in the United States alone, but everyone acknowledges that these are only estimates (Nahata, Stanley, & Quinn, 2017). Moreover these are likely to be poor estimates for several reasons: no national agency counts these births; banks keep track of the number of vials of sperm they sell but they do not keep track of how many of those vials result in a live birth (that number depends on voluntary reporting by consumers to the bank); and individuals rely on contacts with sperm donors outside the commercial banks (e.g., the KnownDonorRegistry [https://knowndonorregistry.com/]; personally known donors [Hertz & Nelson, 2019]).…”

“…Although conception with the assistance of donor sperm is a commonplace event in the United States, the precise number of births resulting from such conceptions remains unknown. Estimates suggest that there have been at least 60,000 such births in the United States alone, but everyone acknowledges that these are only estimates (Nahata, Stanley, & Quinn, 2017).…”

Atitudes face à doação de gâmetas e gestação de substituição

“…Adicionalmente sessões de partilha de experiências de dadores, num formato presencial ou por recurso às tecnologias de informação (e.g., fóruns, websites) poderão, também, ser promovidas. Uma vez que os tratamentos no âmbito da medicina da reprodução têm vindo a aumentar na globalidade, mas também no que se refere a tratamentos realizados com gâmetas de dador(Nahata et al, 2017), é fundamental que as doações acompanhem este crescimento. No que concerne à receção de gâmetas, os resultados sugerem tratar-se de uma circunstância bem aceite pelos participantes.…”