Fathers anonymous: beyond the best interests of the sperm donor.

Abstract

Alex Haley concludes his international best seller, Roots, with the burial of his father in Little Rock, Arkansas. Walking away from the graveside he ponders the past generations, observing I feel that they do watch and guide. The book inspired whole industries devoted to the development of family trees, and locating one's roots has become somewhat of an obsession with many. Because of the current secrecy surrounding the practice of Artificial In semination Donor (AID), there are an estimated 250,000 children conceived by AID (at the rate of 6-10,000 annually in the United States) who will never be able to find their biological roots. There is almost no data available on these children, their psychological development, or their family life. The entire procedure has been shrouded in secrecy that is primarily justified by fear of potential legal consequences should the fact of AID be discovered. It is the thesis of this brief paper that most of the informal poli cies concerning AID as it is presently practiced in the United States have come about because of an exaggeration of potential legal pitfalls and a failure to pay sufficient attention to the best interests of the AID child. Accordingly it is at least premature either to legislate standards or use AID as a model for In vitro Fertilization. Most commentary on AID has concentrated on theoretical legal problems without paying attention to real psychological problems. Indeed, most of the legal literature reads