Parents may be forced to tell the truth on children conceived from donors

The Daily Mail ^ | july 31, 2007 | DancesWithCats

[DancesWithCats]

Parents who conceal the fact that a child was conceived from donor sperm or eggs could face jail under rules proposed today.

The information should be declared on birth certificates to ensure children learn the truth about their creation, says a powerful committee of MPs and peers.

In a report which touches on a highly-sensitive ethical issue, they argue that it would give parents "the incentive to inform their child" at the time and in the manner of their own choosing.

But because it is an offence to give false information on a birth certificate, anyone who refused could be fined or jailed for up to two years.

Fertility pressure groups described the proposals as a "blunt instrument" that could do more harm than good.

They say there is a serious danger children could discover by accident that they are not genetically related to their parents by stumbling across the birth certificate.

[DancesWithCats]

Well, the first thing that comes to mind for me is the child isn't going to be asking to see a birth certificate at six years old. This question wouldn't even come up until the child is older and if the parents have always just said 'mommy' and 'daddy' then that is what the child accepts. If there were a question of medical urgency, the doctor would need the information, not the child. So I think the gov't ought to keep HANDS OFF and let the parents decide if they want to tell. Says me ...

[Slings and Arrows]

In today’s legal environment, any man who lets his sperm out of his immediate control is a moron. (Yes, I know that’s a wonderful straight line; it’s still true.)