Calls for 'wild west' of online sperm donation to be regulated due to 'lifelong consequences'

A leading Australian fertility lawyer is urging governments to regulate the "wild west" of online semen donation, accusing them of being "asleep at the wheel" as women continue to turn to websites and apps to seek donors.

Stephen Page is calling on health ministers to look at regulating the space as part of the three-month rapid review of the nation's fertility sector that was sparked by the second Monash IVF mix-up.

"There's no regulation, you can set up a website, you can set up an app and bang the drum and get men coming along saying that they will be donors, either by AI (artificial insemination), or NI (natural insemination, or what we used to call sex)," he said.

One sperm donation Facebook group, which has more than 21,000 members, asks questions around insemination methods people are comfortable to use, including NI.

Last year, ABC's Background Briefing investigated Facebook group sperm exchanges and the "known donor" movement as "wait times and costs see more Australians turn away from traditional sperm banks".

The sites are used by some single women and lesbian couples seeking to start a family without the big expense and delays of going to fertility companies, which can involve long wait times to access donor sperm.

But Mr Page, who is also on the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) board, cited risks including the lack of a cap on the number of families a donor can donate to through social media and concerns women could be exploited.

He said the need for reform was urgent.

"It worries me greatly. There's been all this attention about IVF clinics and let's be clear, I think much of that is warranted, but what really worries me is these sites and apps being unregulated," he said.

Mr Page said donors should have to provide the site or group's administrator with ID verification, such as a driver's licence or passport.

It should then be passed on to a regulatory authority, and if the donor has surpassed the limit on how many families he can create, "remove him from the site", Mr Page said.

Donors should also have to declare sexually transmitted infection status, he added.

The Brisbane-based lawyer, who made it clear he was not speaking on behalf of FSANZ, believes if social media groups or sites failed to adhere to a proposed code of practice, then they should be shut down.

"You can't control people on the phone, you can't control if they meet in the pub or the corner store, but you can certainly control how they communicate through an app or website, which is how most people communicate," he said.

"We can't have children waking up in the morning discovering that they've got 57 siblings because there's been a failure of political will to regulate these apps and websites.

Asked if any other country regulated this area, he replied: "No, not as far as I'm aware."

Concern regulations would see people move to 'dark web'

Adam Hooper, who started Sperm Donation Australia on social media in 2015 because he believed in "known donation", said regulations would "put people in danger".

"If regulations are brought in (it) will turn into the dark web where children will never know their donors (sic) identities," Mr Hooper told the ABC in response to a series of questions.

"Sperm Donation Australia gives the best advice and goes above and beyond anywhere in the world for a free platform.

"Recipients are told to visualise STD tests before commencing."

Mr Hooper said regulations did not change human behaviour.

"As adults, we all have sexual education," he said. 

"Their (sic) is people on dating apps right now have (sic) unprotected sex."

In response to claims the online semen donation world was the "wild west", he said the "society we live in as a whole is the bigger issue and the real wild west".

Mr Hooper said Sperm Donation Australia kicked people out of the group for "lots of reasons", including unreliability, being caught out lying, and having judgemental views on sexuality.

"We have a very low tolerance for misbehaviour of any sort," he said.

People conceived via donors 'can feel like they've been cloned'

Rebecca Kerner, the chair of the Australia and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association (ANZICA), backed Mr Page's call for action.

She wrote to Federal Health Minister Mark Butler on behalf of ANZICA several times in 2023, concerned about the lack of regulation and the need for a national donor conception register. 

ANZICA wrote to Mr Butler again recently, further advocating for reform.

Ms Kerner said it was only by establishing a national register that family limits on sperm donors could be monitored and maintained.

Without it, she said the risks of psychological distress among donor-conceived children were extreme.

"We need to start listening and hearing from people who are conceived in this way," Ms Kerner said.

"It is about the potential impact of having large donor sibling groups. For some donor-conceived people, they can certainly feel like they've been cloned.

'Lifelong consequences' from unregulated donations

Emily Fae, a Perth-based donor-conceived person and a co-founder of Donor Conceived Australia, said the government has a "duty" to step in.

"I absolutely agree that the online donor space is the wild west," she said, adding that donors can lie about themselves, how many children they have fathered, or conceal serious genetic conditions.

"Unregulated donation creates lifelong consequences for the donor-conceived people involved.

"We deserve accurate medical history, the right to know our genetic relatives, and safeguards against preventable harm."

A federal health department spokeswoman said the three-month review agreed to by the nation's health ministers into the assisted reproductive technology (ART) sector would be led by the Victorian government.

The spokeswoman said the government was aware of the concerns raised by ANZICA about semen donors advertising online.

"Health ministers will consider the outcomes of the review in the coming months, as a matter of priority," she said.