HFEA register

The HFEA keeps a confidential register of information about donors, patients and treatments. This register was set up on 1st August 1991 and therefore contains information concerning children conceived from licensed treatments from that date onwards.

As from the year 2008, people aged 16+ (if contemplating marriage) or 18, who ask the HFEA, will be told whether or not they were born as a result of licensed assisted conception treatment, and if so, whether they are related to the person they want to marry.

The kind of information the Authority previously collected related to a donor’s appearance, interests and occupation. However a recent change in the law means that donors registering from 1st April 2005 will need to agree that identifying information about them may be made available to a child born from treatment using their eggs. Identifying information will only be released if it is requested from the HFEA by the child after he or she reaches the age of 18years. The first identifying information will therefore only therefore be made available after 2023.

A separate information leaflet on ‘Egg and Sperm donors and the Law’ is available at CRM London. Please make sure you receive a copy of that.