Liam Markus. part 2

Thank you Liam for commenting on my blog and setting the record straight. I'd like to ask you however if you believe that you are an exception to the rule or if you know of other donor offsprings who share your point of view ?

I've also wondered if DC girls were more likely to have "identity problems" rather than DC boys and interestingly enough I found an article on the net this afternoon that makes a reference to it for which you will find an exerpt bellow.

The article was written by
Dr. Vivienne Adair
Director, Centre for Child and family Policy Research
Senior Lecturer, School of Education

"Identities are forged by a combination of the past, present and the future and it is here that parents of children who have a conception using donor gametes have a special set of variables to contend with. As knowing oneself depends to some extent on knowing where one comes from, there may be different stresses and tasks to accomplish. It is always tempting to look to adoption as a comparison, but the situation has important differences. With assisted reproductive technology (ART) there is no ‘giving away’ of a child and donors have been encouraged to view gametes as ‘body parts’ by the donors, rather than as a prospective living child. The second difference is that semen and/or eggs have been produced specifically for recipient parents.

However, there are similarities for the child especially in the middle and late teenage years. The similarities are around the need for information about genetic background. For those teenagers who have a knowledge of the involvement of a donor in their conception, the interest in who they are seems to begin from about 13 years of age. Some want information about the donor at this stage and some want to meet him whether or not that is possible. There is not enough information to make definitive statements about this, but it appears that boys may be less likely to want to meet a donor than girls and that older more than younger teenagers want information. As well, it appears that acceptance of having no information or possible contact is dealt with differently. It would take an indepth study to determine which characteristics lead to acceptance and which do not, and at this point no such study has been undertaken."

http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/afrc6papers/adair.html