New Legislation on Donor Treatments

The Irish Government intends to enact Parts 2 & 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act (CFRA) in the coming months.

If the legislation is enacted, it will directly impact patients who require donor eggs or donor sperm in their treatments. Parts of the legislation, particularly Part 9, are very positive and include clarification to allow parents to list both their names on their children’s birth certificates.

Other parts of the legislation, Parts 2 & 3, will have some negative consequences for patients. In these sections, the State has outlined its intention to:

  1. Create a compulsory national register that will hold the personal details of the parent(s), donor-conceived child(ren), and the donors.
  2. Inform donor-conceived children that they are donor conceived when they apply for a birth certificate after age 18. The birth certificate issued will have a Donor-Conceived Person code on it. 
  3. Prohibit the use of non-identifiable (“anonymous”) donor sperm, donor eggs and donor embryos in Ireland.

Waterstone Clinic is opposed to intentions in Parts 2 & 3, and the Department of Health has not yet given complete clarity on the changes, particularly if the sections can be enacted independently. We are working with the Department of Health and will update our patients as we get more information.

If you would like to share your opinion with us – we have a very short survey here.

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