Amendment to Artificial Insemination Donor Data Act

The memorandum of amendment to the amendment proposal for the Artificial Insemination Donor Data Act (Wdkb) was sent to the House of Representatives on 19 May. This memorandum provides for a scheme for donor children of B donors and for a replacement consent after the death of the donor. The procedure for B donors from before 2004 will be the same as for donors from after 2004. This means that the donor's personally-identifying data will be provided, unless he can demonstrate a compelling interest. Donors from before 2004, who want replacement consent to be given by a specific person after their death, can now give consent for this. At this time, no information is provided if a donor prior to 2004 has died.

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Procedure Legislative amendment

The memorandum of amendment makes a number of substantive changes to the bill that was submitted to the House of Representatives on 23 June 2021. The political groups can submit their questions and comments on the bill in writing before 15 June 2022. Minister Kuipers will respond to this in writing; the bill will then be discussed in the House of Representatives.

Scheme for donor children of b-donors

The note of amendment(link is external)provides a scheme for donor children of B donors. The procedure for B-donors from before 2004 is thus the same as for donors from after 2004. The personally identifying data (hereinafter referred to as: personal data) of the donor will be provided, unless he can demonstrate a compelling interest. This also applies if the B-donor has made a confidentiality statement before the entry into force of the law. The further agreements that a B donor has made with the clinic can play a role in the weighing of interests.

Question to the clinic: is it an A donor?

The scheme entails the following. After a request from a donor child, the donor data on artificial insemination (Cdkb, currently still Sdkb) asks the clinic whether the donor is known as an A donor. The clinic will indicate whether it concerns an A donor. This may be explicitly apparent from the medical file, for example from an agreement concluded with the donor or a note in his medical file. It can also be implicit, namely from the fact that anonymous donation was the rule before 2004 and it does not appear from the medical file that the donor intended to make an exception to this. If a clinic has indicated that it is an A donor, no personal data will be provided. In all other cases, there was no question of a donor who did not agree to the provision of his personal data and the procedure follows,

B donors

Before the Wdkb came into effect, artificial donor fertilization usually made use of A(anonymous) donors. From 1992, men could also donate as a B(known) donor. A B donor agreed that donor children could later request his personal data. Some B donors later indicated that they wished to remain anonymous. Because the law does not distinguish between A and B donors, the personal data of B donors may only be provided if the donor agrees. This has major consequences for the donor children involved and two lawsuits have been filed about this. Judgments were handed down in both cases in 2021 .

Replacement consent after donor death

The Amending Memorandum also provides a provision for all donors prior to 2004 who would like to be able to grant replacement consent by a specific person after their death. From now on, a donor can grant the CDKb permission to approach a specific person after his death to request permission to provide the personal data to a donor child.

Other amendments to the bill

The bill changes a number of important matters, such as the possibility to centrally monitor the maximum number of pregnancies per donor after treatment in a Dutch clinic. An improvement is also that a proven hereditary disorder of the donor after the amendment of the law will be registered centrally at the CDKb by means of a tick. Cdkb informs any other clinic(s) that this donor has a genetic disorder, so that they can also inform the women they treat. Cdkb does not register which genetic disorder it concerns; that information is stored by the clinic.

A donor child can indicate to Cdkb that he or she wishes to be informed if the donor has a genetic disorder. There is no age limit attached to this. For donor children under the age of 12, the parent(s) can make the request; From the age of 12, donor children can do this themselves.

Being able to find out ancestry information yourself

A crucial point and condition for a number of improvements in the law is that the donor child is aware of the fact that he/she has been conceived with the help of a sperm and/or egg donor. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Fiom believes that people should be able to find out for themselves that additional information can be found about their genesis, even if their parents do not inform them about this. Earlier we therefore proposed the possibility of annotation on the birth certificate, as well as the possibility of sending a letter from the government to the donor child when they reach a certain age. This letter may state that parentage information can be requested from the CDKb. In certain situations it may be important to approach adult donor children directly, for example, if important medical information turns out to be. To this end, the personal data of donor children themselves should also be included in the CDKb. This is a point that should be taken into account in the discussions surrounding the bill.

Summarized:

The procedure for B(known) donors before 2004 will be the same as for donors after 2004.

From now on, the maximum number of conceptions per donor after treatment in a Dutch clinic will be monitored centrally.

A proven hereditary disorder of the donor is registered centrally at the CDKb after the amendment of the law by means of a tick. Donor children can indicate that they themselves wish to be informed of a genetic disorder in the donor.

Donors from before 2004, who want replacement consent to be granted by a specific person after their death, can from now on record this with the CDKb.

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