Egg donation and UK law

Hello! My wife is about to start an egg donation process here in the UK and we are afraid the donor ends up trying to parent our resulting baby or to exercise parental rights over him. We want to make sure our child will be “fully” ours from beginning to end, even if my wife has to say no to her genetic material – she’s currently on therapy to overcome this. What do you recommend? Should we seek legal counsel? Our clinic hasn’t given us much info about it… And also, what information will be available to our child? Thank you

Hi Douglas,

Under UK law, the woman who gives birth to the child is the legal mother, and no other woman, regardless of whether you’ve used donor eggs or not. Given that egg donors do not carry the pregnancy and therefore they have no legal or financial responsibilities over the child, and therefore cannot become the legal parent. This applies automatically, and it’s the reason why there’s no need for any contract between the anonymous donor and you.

As for the information that will be available to your child, all the details will be recorded on the HFEA Register of Information. The donor-conceived child has certain legal rights to access such information, and non-identifying data will be the only piece of information available from age 16. Identifying information will be available from age 18 – e.g. donor’s name, last known address, date of birth… If the donor has also donated to other families, the child can also ask if s/he has any genetic half-siblings.

Get further information here: What does the HFE Act say about donor conception in the UK?

I hope I have been able to help,

Best wishes