[Attitude and considerations of sperm donors in relation to insemination]

The object of the study was to examine sperm donors' motivations and emotional reactions to the role as donors and to measure their willingness to provide information about themselves to recipients and offspring. It was designed as a prospective trial in which 26 subjects who were actively functioning as sperm donors at our fertility clinic at the time of investigation were asked to fill in a questionnaire and return it anonymously and voluntarily. Eight percent of the donors stated purely altruistic motivation, 32% purely financial and 60% a combination of both. The acceptance rate for providing non-identifying, phenotypic, descriptive information to recipients is 76%, for providing medical information it is 60% and the provision of psychosocial information is accepted by 28% to 40% depending on the item. Twenty percent of donors are willing to continue donation if the present rules of anonymity are revoked, 20% were undecided. In conclusion, most donors do not seem to feel any close relationship to donor offspring and at least 60% found anonymity to be essential for their continued functioning as donors.