Attitudes and opinions of donors on an artificial insemination by donor (AID) programme

The attitudes and opinions of AID donors have been neglected in the research on AID. The general community and medical attitude is that donors are a reluctant and secretive group, who wish all information about themselves to be destroyed. This paper presents data from a study of 67 donors at the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne. Through questionnaires and structured interviews, donors were asked questions concerning: their reasons for donating; their attitudes to the infertile couple who receive their sperm; their attitudes to the selection of couples; the revelation of information about themselves; and the possibility of meeting their AID offspring. The data reveal that some stereotypes about the donors are not valid; they do not donate primarily for monetary reasons and they are not only medical students. Furthermore, the majority of this group would not object if information about them, apart from their name, were given to the couple for the child, and over half would not mind meeting the child at the age of 18 years. It is clear from this study that before any legislation is created, donors' viewpoints should be considered. It is not impossible that a system could be designed to accommodate all the varied needs of couples, donors, and AID offspring.