The disclosure decision: concerns and issues of parents of children conceived through donor insemination

The purpose of our study was to examine the disclosure decision by parents of children conceived by donor insemination.

A qualitative component of a self-administered questionnaire mailed to 184 couples who had become parents by donor insemination encouraged respondents to volunteer their written comments, concerns, or opinions about their disclosure decision.

A total of 70 men and 86 women submitted written comments indicating that 54% did not plan to disclose the donor insemination treatment (nondisclosers), 30% indicated they would (disclosers), and 16% remained undecided. The only significant relationship between the disclosure decision and expressed concern was with regard to confidentiality and honesty (chi2 = 99.9, p < 0.05).

Whether parents viewed the disclosure issue as one of honesty (disclosers) or confidentiality (nondisclosers) was the major determinant in the decision of whether to tell children about their donor insemination origin. There was no association between disclosure status or gender and expressed concerns about parenting, children, or family relations.