Where Did I Come From?
Aug. 30, 2000 -- When a child asks where babies come from, the answer may no longer be a simple response about "the birds and the bees." Advances in reproductive technology have changed the face of childbirth and given us not only babies but complex issues to grapple with. Whether to explain the circumstances of a high-tech conception to a child is an area of great controversy, but many experts now think it may be best, in the long run, for children to know the whole truth about their origins.
Two European studies, both published in a recent issue of Human Reproduction, examine issues surrounding children conceived through donor insemination. Donor insemination (DI) is a procedure in which a woman is impregnated by sperm from a donor, usually anonymous. It's one of the oldest techniques in reproductive medicine, but little consensus has been reached on what -- if anything-- to tell the children who result.
In the first study, Swedish researchers found that despite legislation giving children conceived through DI the right to information about the sperm donor when they reach adulthood, the majority of parents had not yet told their children about the origins of their birth. Only half either had told, or intended to tell, the truth to their children.
"It's a basic truth of how they came about, and in most situations, the child will appreciate knowing the truth," says William Bernet, MD, who reviewed the studies for WebMD. "There are a lot of problems when you don't tell people the truth, and there has been a lot of work done on how family secrets are damaging." Bernet, an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee, says the situation is similar to adoption, in that people need to be told where they come from.
The Swedish researchers, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, sent a questionnaire to 194 couples who had conceived a child by DI after the sperm-donor-information legislation went into effect. At the time of the survey, 89% of the couples responding had not yet told their children, and a number of them said they had no intention of ever telling them.
Where Did I Come From?
Aug. 30, 2000 -- When a child asks where babies come from, the answer may no longer be a simple response about "the birds and the bees." Advances in reproductive technology have changed the face of childbirth and given us not only babies but complex issues to grapple with. Whether to explain the circumstances of a high-tech conception to a child is an area of great controversy, but many experts now think it may be best, in the long run, for children to know the whole truth about their origins.
Two European studies, both published in a recent issue of Human Reproduction, examine issues surrounding children conceived through donor insemination. Donor insemination (DI) is a procedure in which a woman is impregnated by sperm from a donor, usually anonymous. It's one of the oldest techniques in reproductive medicine, but little consensus has been reached on what -- if anything-- to tell the children who result.
In the first study, Swedish researchers found that despite legislation giving children conceived through DI the right to information about the sperm donor when they reach adulthood, the majority of parents had not yet told their children about the origins of their birth. Only half either had told, or intended to tell, the truth to their children.
"It's a basic truth of how they came about, and in most situations, the child will appreciate knowing the truth," says William Bernet, MD, who reviewed the studies for WebMD. "There are a lot of problems when you don't tell people the truth, and there has been a lot of work done on how family secrets are damaging." Bernet, an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee, says the situation is similar to adoption, in that people need to be told where they come from.
The Swedish researchers, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, sent a questionnaire to 194 couples who had conceived a child by DI after the sperm-donor-information legislation went into effect. At the time of the survey, 89% of the couples responding had not yet told their children, and a number of them said they had no intention of ever telling them.