Circumstances Leading To Finding Out about Being Donor-Conceived and Its Perceived Impact on Family Relationships: A Survey of Adults Conceived via Anonymous Donor Insemination in Germany

Tobias Bauer () and Anne Meier-Credner
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Tobias Bauer: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kurokami 2-40-1, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan
Anne Meier-Credner: Verein Spenderkinder, Thorwaldsenstr. 8, 12157 Berlin, Germany

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: Recent empirical research on the psychosocial implications of donor insemination is increasingly based on data directly obtained from donor-conceived persons. This descriptive study on donor-conceived adults in Germany inquires into their experience of finding out about being donor-conceived and answers the following research question: how do German adults conceived via anonymous donor insemination find out about the means of their conception and how do they experience family relationships post finding out? An online self-administered questionnaire targeting German donor-conceived adults to obtain qualitative and quantitative data was administered between September and November 2020. Fifty-nine donor-conceived adults were recruited via the support and advocacy group Verein Spenderkinder . Participants had been born in heterosexual-couple-parented families, were between 21 and 46 years old, and found out about the circumstances of their conception between 5 and 46 years of age. A broad spectrum of contexts and circumstances in which participants learned about being donor-conceived were reported, such as discovery via medical records, through disclosure as a result of parental consideration of the child’s current life situation or through direct-to-consumer DNA testing. Finding out about the means of their conception was experienced by participants as affecting their relationships with their family members to different degrees and in various ways. This first systematic inquiry into German donor-conceived adults’ experiences expands the literature and provides basic data for further research. Direct-to-consumer DNA testing is identified as one emerging trigger for finding out, warranting future research. The heuristic value of further in-depth inquiry into donor-conceived adults’ relationship with family members other than their parents, in particular their siblings, is highlighted.

Keywords: sperm donation; donor-conceived adults; disclosure; family relationships; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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