Donor Unknown

Has Donor 150 submitted any samples for DNA testing for susceptibilities to disease or medical conditions? What information about such is available to the children?

The donations were made by Donor 150 in California over 20 years ago. Donors were tested for medical conditions by the standards of those times. As far as we are aware, no-one has requested that Donor 150 submit samples for DNA testing retrospectively. Balancing the needs of children to access information about their genetic background against the protection of donor anonymity is a huge subject for debate.

Thank you for your response and I agree it's a subject rich for debate. My parents died when I was a baby and I have no family contacts who can supply family medical info. That's why I wondered if perhaps DNA test results about disease/medical susceptibilities would be more useful to the donor's progeny than knowing where features like high foreheads and bushy eyebrows came from. Perhaps this will be more of an issue as they age.

I also can't help wondering if the women who availed themselves of the sperm bank ever envisioned that their children would one day have access to information that was not available to them at the time, or perhaps even now. Did they or do others similarly situated have what is called an "expectation of privacy" in these matters? Were any waivers or statements of consent ever considered or sought?

Yet more subject for debate.