A bill was recently passed in the Victorian Parliament allowing individuals who were conceived with donated eggs or sperm to access identifying information about their donors and heritage from 1 March 2017 without donor consent.

People born from donor sperm or eggs prior to 1998 were previously unable to automatically obtain this information and donor consent was required to do so.

The Victorian Health Minister, Jill Hennessy, has stated that information about a person’s genetic heritage is very important and can “make a huge difference to the lives of donor-conceived Victorians”.

The Victorian Reproductive Treatment Authority will manage access to information about donors and provide counselling to donors, donor-conceived people and their families.

Donors who donated prior to 1998 will be able to specify the level of contact, or specify that they want no contact, with their donor-conceived offspring in recognition that when they donated it was with the expectation that they would remain anonymous.

Donor-conceived people will also be able to specify contact preferences if their donor seeks identifying information about them.