Pratten sperm donor test case
Olivia Pratten has won her high-profile test case against the provincial government of British Columbia.Ms Pratten was born in 1982 as a result of donor insemination argued that donor anonymity for sperm and egg donors in British Columbia should end.
Discrimination
She argued that the province's adoption laws discriminated against donor offspring such as her because they don't allow them the same ability to learn their genetic roots as adopted children.
Long battle
The sperm donor’s donation allowed her parents to have her, so she has a father, but wanted to find her natural father. Ms Pratten spent many years trying to obtain details of her sperm donor father and began the lawsuit when she was unable to obtain information, due to the anonymity guaranteed to sperm donors.
Current law unconstitutional
Supreme Court Judge Elaine Adair agreed. Referring to anonymous donation, she wrote, "is harmful to the child, and it is not in the best interests of donor offspring,"
The Judge also found sections of the Adoption Act and Adoption Regulations to be unconstitutional. The law was revised in 1996 to allow adopted children the right to information about their biological parents, but it does not include children born of reproductive donations.
Adoptive children and donor offspring are similar in their need to know and have a connection to their biological roots, the judge said.
Time to change laws
However the ruling gives the provincial government 15 months to amend the law to address donor offspring and also grants a permanent injunction against the destruction of donor records in the province.
Ms Pratten thrilled
"I'm thrilled," said Ms Pratten , "It's finally validation of what people like myself have been saying for years." The decision won't help Pratten to find out the identity of the donor whose sperm allowed her parents to conceive. "I've always known that my records were probably destroyed. It was more about changing the policies going forward," she said.
Parental support
Ms Pratten had the support of her mother and father, who accompanied her to court every day for the previous hearings. "I'm not related to my dad but he's my dad," she said. "This is a victory for them as well because finally what they were saying 20 years ago has been heard and recognized as being accurate."
Start of donor test cases in Canada
Pratten's lawyer, said the end result of the decision is that anonymous egg and sperm donation will no longer be permitted in B.C. However the ruling has no judicial force outside the province, however other donor offspring have stated they will now contest laws in their own provinces.
Government to consider appeal
The Attorney General of B.C., the defendant in the case, had no immediate comment on the ruling. "The court just delivered the decision today on this very complex matter. We will need time to carefully study the decision, decide what its implications are and what the next steps should be, including whether we will appeal," said a statement from the ministry.
Sperm donor information today
Today, a woman seeking donor insemination in B.C. can get detailed social and medical information on the donor even if the donation is anonymous.
Anonymous sperm donation still choice
The judge however noted that anonymous donation remains the choice of many would-be parents who want control over what their child knows, when they know and who might be involved in their child's life.
Judge Adair wrote, "Strong and positive relationships with social parents do not satisfy or eliminate the desire and need of donor offspring to know where they came from, and their need to know their origins is just as powerful and real as those of adoptees."
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