Legislation
NSW Inquiry into inclusion of donor details on the register of births
Resolution passed 17 October 2011
That the Committee (Committee on Law & Safety) inquire into and report on whether there should be provision for the inclusion of donor details on the register of births maintained by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
The Committee has put out the following information
The issue of whether there should be provision to include donor details on the register of births
maintained by the NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages is to be examined in an inquiry
conducted by the Legislative Assembly's Committee on Law and Safety.
The Committee's inquiry follows a recent District Court judgment to remove a sperm donor's details from the register of births.
Currently there is no provision for recording of sperm, egg or embryo donor details by the NSW
Registrar. However, donor information is entered on a central register that has been kept by the
Department of Health since January 2010. The register was set up to assist the exchange of
information on donor conceived people, with donors and offspring having the opportunity to access information about each other.
The Chair of the Committee, Mr John Barilaro MP, said that "Access to information for donor
conceived people is an important issue, and the Committee is keen to seek community views on
where and how details should be maintained to facilitate this access."
"We will consider whether the current system for recording donor information is adequate, and
whether these details should be kept by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages."
"As part of the inquiry, we will also be exploring how donor details are recorded in other Australian jurisdictions."
The Committee is inviting submissions to the inquiry. Submissions can be emailed to
lawsafety@parliament.nsw.gov.au, lodged via the Committee’s website at
www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lawandsafety or mailed to: The Chair, Committee on Law and Safety,
Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000.
The closing date for submissions is Wednesday, 21 December 2011.
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In 2008 the new Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 was passed through the Victorian Parliament the changes included the following:
17B Birth registration of child conceived by a treatment procedure
(1) If a birth registration statement specifies the child was conceived by
a donor treatment procedure, the Registrar must mark the words
"donor conceived" against the entry about the child's birth in the
Register.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), when the Registrar issues a certificate
certifying particulars contained in an entry about the birth of a
person conceived by a donor treatment procedure, the Registrar must
attach an addendum to the certificate stating that further information
is available about the entry.
(3) The Registrar must not issue the addendum referred to in subsection
(2) to any person other than the person conceived by a donor
treatment procedure named in the entry.
This shows that the Victorian Parliament seriously considers the rights of donor conceived people to have information just like adoptees do.
What You can do!
Write to the committee at the above address and voice your opinion. If you need help with what to write please feel free to use or get ideas from this sample letter.
To the Committee on Law & Safety,
In NSW a donor conceived person’s birth certificate does not tell them the truth about who they are genetically related to. Some donor offspring have called this a statutorily sanctioned fraud.
All donor conceived people deserve the dignity of knowing the truth about their conception and identity. The only way to ensure that all donor conceived people know the truth is to have their birth certificates reflect that truth. Birth certificates should always display the names of a child’s genetic parents, to reflect the biological truth about his or her parentage, and to guard against the secrecy that has historically accompanied donor conception and adoption. Currently only those children conceived after January 2010 in NSW have the right to access identifying information about their donors through the Department of Health Voluntary Register. All donor conceived people should have the right to access this information regardless of when they were born just like adoptees. We call on the NSW Parliament to make access to identifiying information by donor conceived people retrospective.
Yours Sincerely
Registers in Australia
Only 3 states of Australia have registers:
Victoria
http://online.justice.vic.gov.au/CA2574F700805DE7/page/Births-Donor+treatment+registers?OpenDocument&1=10-Births~&2=20-Donor+treatment+register~&3=~
http://www.varta.org.au/regulation-of-art-in-victoria/w1/i1003267/
Western Australia
http://www.voluntaryregister.health.wa.gov.au/home/
http://www.rtc.org.au/
New South Wales
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/art/
Legislation around Australia
Legislation regarding Donor Conception currently varies from state to state; some states have no legislation.
The following authorities govern the running of assisted reproductive technology legislation in their states:
Vic Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority
(03) 8601-5250
www.varta.org.au/
WA Reproductive Technology Council
(08) 9323 6642
NSW The NSW Registers
(02) 9424 5953
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/art/
SA SA Council on Reproductive Technologies
(08) 8226-6048
http://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au
go to health service—women’s health—pregnancy & fertility
The following states have no legislation governing reproductive technology so any questions on legislation that we are unable to help with should be directed to the state health ministers
ACT Minister for Health (02) 62050840
NT Minister for Health (08) 8901 4161
Qld Minister for Health [07] 3234 1191
Tas Minister for Health (03) 6233 6752
