Reporter: Janine Cohen
Date: 24/10/2005
JANINE COHEN: Anonymous donor sperm has helped many Australian families have children. But exactly who and how many have been conceived in clinics like this, nobody knows. Are there any records recording who donor children are in Australia and how many there are?
PROFESSOR DOUGLAS SAUNDERS, RTAC CHAIRPERSON: No.
JANINE COHEN: Are you not concerned about that?
PROFESSOR DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: No, not particularly, no.
JANINE COHEN: This man has no idea how many children he's helped create. He donated sperm more than 300 times. So you're not concerned about any of your own offspring meeting and having a relationship?
ANONYMOUS DONOR: You would be a bit concerned, I suppose.
JANINE COHEN: But what is the impact on children conceived with anonymous donor sperm? These sisters went on a 20-year hunt to find their donor father. What they found shocked them.
ANNE SMEE: He got upset, a bit irate and said, "Don't be ridiculous", and screamed at me and said goodbye.
HELEN EDEL: Finding your grass roots gives you meaning in life, and every child deserves their right to know where they came from.
JANINE COHEN: What do you think the motivation is for donor-conceived children wanting to find out about their donor biological dads?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Oh, in this day and age, everybody's got to know everything about everything.
JANINE COHEN: Tonight on Four Corners, anonymous donor sperm conception. A gift of life, or a social experiment gone wrong? Sally McGreal's about to leave on a three-hour road trip from Melbourne to Albury, just over the border in New South Wales. Her mission - to buy anonymous donor sperm, so she can have a second child. She's part of a growing movement of single women and lesbian couples using a stranger's semen to conceive.
SALLY MCGREAL: I just couldn't see myself without children, and I thought that was all part of... ..what we're supposed to be doing while we're here.
JANINE COHEN: Sally McGreal's forced to travel interstate. In Victoria, only heterosexual couples or infertile women are allowed to access anonymous donor sperm from a fertility clinic. DR. RUTH MCNAIR, SALLY MCGREAL'S MELBOURNE GP: Sally was in that situation of not knowing a known donor, so she was forced to go interstate. So, we talked a bit about which clinics were available, how she might be able to get there. And she was preferring to drive to the clinics, so, Albury seemed to be the most useful avenue for her.
Two years ago, Sally McGreal realised she wasn't going to meet a man she could have a family with. And at the age of 39, her biological clock was ticking. So she decided to go it alone. A hairdresser with her own business and house, she could afford to raise a child. Sally McGreal was very lucky. After only her second visit to Albury, she fell pregnant with Brigit.
JANINE COHEN: Why did you decide to use anonymous donor sperm? Did you ever consider someone you knew, a friend or...?
SALLY MCGREAL: Yeah, but many people have suggested that, but that's not my way of doing things. Personally, I couldn't ask that of a friend.
JANINE COHEN: As a result, Brigit probably will never know her biological father. Her mother chose him from a handful of men. She was given few details. There was no photo and no name.
JANINE COHEN: And it doesn't worry you that Brigit will never know her father because he's anonymous?
SALLY MCGREAL: No, I don't think it... that's the point of donor insemination. That is the point of why I'm going up there, because I haven't found a partner, and I don't really need to know the partner. She doesn't need to know the partner. Or her...donor.
JANINE COHEN: Her donor also decided he wanted it that way. He agreed to donate sperm on the condition it was anonymous. In Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand and the UK, that's now illegal. Only men willing to be identified need apply. But in NSW and most other states - although the industry's licensing body forbids it - as Four Corners will reveal, some clinics are still using anonymous donor sperm.
DR. LIZ MARLES, MEDICAL ADVISOR, DONOR SUPPORT GROUP: Unfortunately it means that without legislation, every month, year, that goes on, we are getting more people who are being born without rights, and without, you know, protection for their identity. And I think that's a, you know, it's a tragic situation, and it really underlies the urgency of getting national legislation.
JANINE COHEN: Sally McGreal is returning to Albury in NSW because she doesn't want Brigit to be an only child.
SALLY MCGREAL: Really, when you are going up to these... to have this sort of thing done, yeah, I don't really have an expectation. You just have to be very relaxed and see what the outcome can be, or will be.
JANINE COHEN: The 41-year-old woman has been given six donors to choose from. What sort of detail did you get on the donor, what sort of things did they tell you?
SALLY MCGREAL: Mainly, you know, your height, your eye colour, weight, origin - being Australian. I think what they've done, are they married, do they have children, their... you know, their present or current job and their academic ability.
JANINE COHEN: According to Sally McGreal's documentation, only two of the six donors were willing to be identified. Anonymous donors are no longer supposed to be used in Australia, according to the licensing body, the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee. But some clinics interpret the RTAC rules differently.
RUTH KEAT, PROGRAM MANAGER, REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE, ALBURY: It's a recommendation, it's not a mandatory requirement.
JANINE COHEN: It's just a guideline...
RUTH KEAT: Exactly, exactly.
JANINE COHEN: And guidelines aren't... are not set in law, are they?
RUTH KEAT: No, they're not, but RTAC has... in order for clinics to be... accredited, they have mandatory recommended requirements. So, some of them are mandatory and they're not negotiable, but with respect to donor for sperm it is definitely a recommendation, but not a requirement.
JANINE COHEN: Ruth Keat is wrong. It's a condition of accreditation. However, clinics who lose RTAC accreditation can still operate. Ruth Keat initially denied her clinic was still using unidentifiable donors. Later, however, she admitted the clinic must have offered Sally McGreal sperm from anonymous donors recruited in Queensland. Accredited clinics have been given until January 2006 to comply.
DR. LIZ MARLES, MEDICAL ADVISOR, DONOR SUPPORT GROUP: There are people out there who are happy to donate, and be identified down the track, if they're fully informed about, you know, what sort of protections there are for them, and what it means.
JANINE COHEN: In NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT, where there's no legislation, the RTAC Code of Practice is the only thing regulating the donor industry. And obviously there's nothing compelling the donor either to respect these rules.
RUTH KEAT, PROGRAM MANAGER, REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE, ALBURY: At the moment, we're recruiting only donors that are willing to be identified in principle. There's no, I guess, mandatory requirement on them to do that, and they may well change their minds. But at the moment, that's definitely what we're looking for, and we ask them in principle to agree to that, yes.
JANINE COHEN: But there's no guarantee, is there?
RUTH KEAT: There's no guarantee.
JANINE COHEN: But Albury also still uses unidentifiable donors. What's your view on that?
DR. RUTH MCNAIR, SALLY MCGREAL'S MELBOURNE GP: Well, I'm very concerned about that. I think many of the patients are too, now.
JANINE COHEN: Many studies show that most donor-conceived children want to know who their donor is. And some of those want to meet him. But that's not something that really concerns Sally McGreal.
SALLY MCGREAL: I would have thought that if you had... if you're happy with your existence as is and your mother and your upbringing that you wouldn't feel that need to go searching because everything you have around you is fulfilled.
DR. RUTH MCNAIR: If Bridget at the age of 8 or 10 or 15, says, "I really have to know who my dad is, my biological dad." She wont be able to find out. And I thinks that's a concern for her.
SALLY MCGREAL: When you think about it for the parent it would probably be a little bit disturbing. 'Cause she'd be wondering what she hasn't done correctly or what she hasn't provided. Why would she want to chase that...that information?
JANINE COHEN: But history shows that even the most loved and well-adjusted of children can still have a desperate longing to know who their donor is. Twins Helen Edel and Anne Smee went on a 20-year detective hunt for their biological father.
HELEN EDEL: I dreamed and fantasised about what my biological father would be like. I used to walk down the street... You look at people's faces. You always wonder.
ANNE SMEE: It's a natural phenomenon to want to know where you're from.
JANINE COHEN: It was not until the sisters were 20 they discovered they were donor conceived.
HELEN EDEL: My mother remarried. And our step-father said to us, "He's not your father, he's not your father," in the heat of an argument.
ANNE SMEE: Back in the 1960s, it just didn't happen. People wouldn't have... Religious, conservative right-winger people would have been shocked to hear that men were donating their sperm.
HELEN EDEL: We got the shock of our lives, you know? All of a sudden finding out this so-called father that brought us up... he really wasn't our father. And we thought, "Oh, my, God. "Well, then, who are we? Where do we come from?" And we'd look in the mirror...
JANINE COHEN: In 1959, the twins' mother was desperate to have children. But her husband was infertile.
HELEN EDEL: Well, her sister...who was a doctor, had a friend at Balmain Hospital. And said, "Look, I know this doctor. "A gynaecologist/obstetrician that might be able to help you out." And she organised a meeting with him.
JANINE COHEN: The sisters were born in March 1960, but didn't know until 1980 they were donor conceived. When they did learn the family secret it fuelled a desperate desire to know more. Who was their biological father? Did they look like him? Were there any genetic illnesses in his family? They asked their mother for more information.
HELEN EDEL: In those days the sperm was fresh. "So who was the man whose fresh sperm...you know? Who was he? Did you see him? Did you walk into the room? What happened? What happened?" You know?
JANINE COHEN: All their mother could tell them was that she visited the Balmain Hospital and the name of the specialist that treated her. His name was Dr John Doherty.
ANNE SMEE: I rang up the doctor myself, personally. And said, "Is there any possible chance I could have a photo of our biological father?" He got upset and a bit irate. And said, "Don't be ridiculous." And screamed at me and said goodbye.
HELEN EDEL: She got terribly upset because he had no... He had no inkling that this was our whole meaning in our life. And how dare he dismiss us as if we're being frivolous?
ANNE SMEE: I was very upset. I couldn't stop crying. I must have cried all day for one day. And then put it all to rest...for 20 years.
JANINE COHEN: The sisters' search hit a brick wall. They tried to get on with their lives - married and started families of their own. But they never lost that longing to know who their biological father was.
PHILIP EDEL, HELEN'S HUSBAND: Helen didn't feel she could be settled and neither could Anne. I mean, they're very alike, as identical twins will be. And for both of them there was just this missing piece of life's jigsaw puzzle. And it was important to them to finish the puzzle.
JANINE COHEN: Three years after discovering they were donor conceived, the sisters persuaded their mother to ask Dr Doherty for any records he'd kept. Then Anne Smee followed up with a letter.
HELEN EDEL: Well, my sister wrote a letter to Dr Doherty asking, "Have you got a photograph? Just a photograph or a bit of history of who he might be, of where we came from... We don't really want to meet him. We just want a photograph. Or a bit of background to our DNA. That's all we're asking for."
JANINE COHEN: To the sisters' amazement, Dr Doherty wrote back a detailed description of the anonymous donor.
MAN READS: "He is fourth-generation Australian. Black hair, brown eyes, about 5 feet 10 inches, olive skin and medium build. Physically, he was considered to be a ruggedly good-looking young man with a squarish face and good teeth when he laughed. He was quite athletic."
JANINE COHEN: But the doctor refused to release the donor's name or any medical history other than to say the man was also a doctor.
JANINE COHEN: You weren't after a father figure?
ANNE SMEE: No, weren't after a father figure because we had our father, raised us. Yeah, it's just curiosity more than anything. To see what you look like, to where you're from. Just interesting to see what...who made you. (Reads) "Dear Anne, your mother wrote to me recently. So I was quite pleased to hear from you. The donor was a very bright young doctor who has since become a successful specialist in experimental medicine. So the IQ part is quite OK..."
JANINE COHEN: The sisters read the letter over and over again, thinking that this would be the most they'd ever learn about their donor father.
PHILIP EDEL, HELEN'S HUSBAND: It was something that was fairly consuming. I think for both of them because it wasn't just a flighty thing. It really meant everything to them to know the story and to know what the answers were.
JANINE COHEN: It would be another 20 years before they'd get to the bottom of the mystery. In 2003, they read about a support group for donor-conceived children.
HELEN EDEL: We showed them our letter. And they said, "Gee, that letter looks funny."
LEONIE HEWITT, DONOR CONCEPTION SUPPORT GROUP: He talked about his academic abilities. His profession. His...teeth, interestingly. And I thought to myself, "How could a doctor know "how the donor's teeth were 20 years later?" I listened to the letter. And I very, very carefully said to them in a very gentle way, "Have you ever thought that the doctor could be the donor?"
JANINE COHEN: What did they say?
LEONIE HEWITT: There was silence at the other end of the phone. It was like I'd landed a bomb in their...in her lap. And I said to her that some doctors were donors.
JANINE COHEN: Now the sisters were on a mission to find the truth. The first thing they wanted to know was what Dr John Doherty looked like. And did he look like them? They went to the medical library at Sydney University and looked through the yearbooks for his picture.
ANNE SMEE: We looked at photos to see if we could see pictures of ourself.
JANINE COHEN: And what did you see staring back from the pages?
ANNE SMEE: Someone that looked like us.
JANINE COHEN: But the twins couldn't be certain that John Doherty was their father. By this time, he'd long retired and left Sydney. And his trail seemed to end there.
HELEN EDEL: We still had no proof. So I knew that we were on our way to solving the puzzle but we weren't there yet.
ANNE SMEE: Now we had to work out - was this true? So that's when... we tried to locate Dr Doherty.
HELEN EDEL: So we did a bit of research on the Internet. And I traced Dr Doherty to Balmain Hospital. Then I traced him... He had a practice in St Ives. We researched on the Net. And painstakingly tracked his career.
JANINE COHEN: They traced him to a small country town in New South Wales. And they telephoned every Doherty in the area until they finally found the doctor's wife in a retirement home.
HELEN EDEL: I've got...started to get a few butterflies in the tummy. I started to think, "Well, maybe we're...we're coming to an end."
JANINE COHEN: Helen Edel spoke to his wife only to be told the bad news - Dr Doherty had died 10 years earlier. The women were devastated. They thought they would never learn the truth.
HELEN EDEL: Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was another man. So we're still... We're not sure, you know? We're not sure yet.
JANINE COHEN: What they discovered was that Dr Doherty had a son. They potentially had a half-brother. But how would they ever know?
ANNE SMEE: Helen rang up what would have been our biological half-brother. And asked him would he consent to a DNA test?
HELEN EDEL: I was very nervous. Because, you know, this strange person ringing up saying, "Look, we think Dr Doherty might be our father."
ANNE SMEE: Well, he was shocked, equally as shocked, to think he's got two half-sisters running around.
HELEN EDEL: I told him how we were, you know, really trying to find some meaning in our life. And, "Would you agree?" I said, "Look, we don't want any money. All we wanna do...is a picture, a bit of medical record... Would you agree to a DNA test?"
JANINE COHEN: Incredibly, the son did agree. And the result was conclusive. The DNA test showed that Dr John Doherty was their genetic father.
ANNE SMEE: I feel great because I know who I am and where I'm from. So it was a great end to a 20-year secret.
HELEN EDEL: There it was. There was the answer, you know? After all those... After all those years of...not knowing where we came from. And... Excuse me, yeah. So all of a sudden, the whole meaning in our lives came back.
PHILIP EDEL, HELEN'S HUSBAND: I think all credit to her for persevering, and the same to Anne. That they weren't going to give up. They were just going to keep at it until they got the answers. And once they got the answers, it was good. They could put it to rest. It wasn't going to be something that would continue to be consuming their lives.
JANINE COHEN: The twins only met their genetic half-brother once. After helping them put the final piece of the puzzle together, he declined further contact. He also declined to speak to Four Corners.
ANNE SMEE: He got worried about his family and his reputation. So I think now he regrets that he consulted to the DNA test because it's HIS father. You can understand his perspective too. It was his dad.
JANINE COHEN: Dr Doherty breached good clinical practice by donating his own sperm to a patient and not telling them. But there were no medical ethics for donor conception in 1959. The twins believe Dr Doherty was well intentioned and were only upset that he'd kept it a secret all his life.
JANINE COHEN: What do you think motivated Dr Doherty to donate his own sperm?
HELEN EDEL: I think deep down he wanted to help women that desperately wanted to have children. But really, he didn't really think it out. And didn't really think of the bigger picture.
JANINE COHEN: The sisters wonder if Dr Doherty had donated his sperm to other women. Potentially they could have more half-brothers and sisters.
ANNE SMEE: How many people did Dr Doherty artificially inseminate? How many women? I mean, if people donate lots of sperm, well, how...yeah, you could walk around and you'd be making love to your half-brother or half-sister. I mean, it's bizarre.
HELEN EDEL: It worries us a little bit. We always make jokes there could be half a dozen other people walking out there with a similar DNA and what would happen if they met one of our children?
ANNE SMEE: Sometimes you're attracted to people that look like yourself, you know, they've done studies.
HELEN EDEL: I think there should be a national register of people that are going to donate their sperm. There should be medical histories, their record, so that that could avoid that happening.
JANINE COHEN: Many doctors believe a national register is needed for any children conceived in the future with donor sperm.
DR. LIZ MARLES, MEDICAL ADVISOR, DONOR SUPPORT GROUP: I think that those things are really important from an accountability point of view and they provide security for everybody in the system. They provide security for the donor, to know that his donations are going to be used ethically. They provide security for the parents who can raise the child and be open and honest knowing that the questions that come up will have answers.
JANINE COHEN: One of the most common criticisms of central registers and using only identifiable donors is that fewer men will donate sperm. But Professor Gab Kovacs at Monash IVF in Melbourne has worked with the Victorian register and used only identifiable donors for years. And he's seen no shortage of sperm as a result.
JANINE COHEN: What's the advantage, do you think, of a national registry?
PROFESSOR GAB KOVACS, MONASH IVF: Well, at least it would cover people going from state to state. It would also give us statistics on a national level, which are hard to get at the moment, and again it would register donors so that donors would be on the same system.
JANINE COHEN: But some in the fertility industry don't want a central register. Professor Douglas Saunders, chair of the industry's licensing body for the last five years, wouldn't support any moves for a national register.
JANINE COHEN: Are there any records recording who donor children are in Australia and how many there are?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS, REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY ACCREDITATION COMMITTEE: No.
JANINE COHEN: Are you not concerned about that?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: No, not particularly. No.
JANINE COHEN: Why aren't you concerned that we don't know who they are?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Because it's impractical. We don't live in a police state.
PROFESSOR GAB KOVACS, MONASH IVF: Doug's entitled to his opinion. I've worked under the Victorian law and we can work with it and we can see where it's coming from and I believe it could be used nationally without unnecessarily restricting the freedom of people in other states.
JANINE COHEN: Do you think there should be national records where we know, where people know who and how many donor conceived children there are in Australia?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: I think the Australian people would not agree to that - that would be a huge invasion of privacy.
JANINE COHEN: Why would it be an invasion of privacy to have medical records documenting who's donor conceived? Why would that be an invasion of privacy?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Well, would you want everything about you in some big database in Canberra?
DR. LIZ MARLES, MEDICAL ADVISOR, DONOR SUPPORT GROUP: I think it is extraordinary that we're in the 21st century and records as fundamental as those about a person's identity have no security and we don't even know if they're if they're being kept.
JANINE COHEN: Victoria passed legislation almost 20 years ago making central registers mandatory. The records are kept by a state government body, the Infertility Treatment Authority, and can only be accessed with the consent of all parties.
DR. LIZ MARLES: It's important to know who you're related to and that you're not forming a relationship with someone who may be a half-sibling. I think it's a really central part of understanding who you are as a person.
JANINE COHEN: Four Corners has found cases of donor-conceived children meeting socially and not knowing they're related. On Sydney's North Shore there were two full siblings, a brother and sister, the result of embryo transplants, growing up in separate families but in the same neighbourhood. They were also believed to be at the same school. Four Corners believes neither children nor their parents knew of the situation. The children were conceived in the clinic that Professor Saunders was working in.
JANINE COHEN: Do you find that a reason for concern?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: I can't comment on that.
JANINE COHEN: Why not?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: It's a too hy... It's a hy... It's a question I don't know enough about. All I can...
JANINE COHEN: Would it surprise you to learn that those recipients come from your clinic?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: That they go to the same school? It wouldn't surprise me, no. It would not surprise me.
JANINE COHEN: This man has no idea how many children he's helped create. He donated sperm 318 times from 1979 to 1992. Four Corners obtained a copy of his personal records detailing where and when he donated. He agreed to do an interview on the proviso he wasn't identified. So you donated 318 times. How many offspring do you think there could be out there?
ANONYMOUS DONOR: I wouldn't have a clue.
DR. LIZ MARLES: I think it's appalling and I hate to think that that is something that has happened commonly. I would be extremely surprised if it has...
JANINE COHEN: But how would we know? DR. LIZ MARLES: Look, well, unfortunately we can't know.
JANINE COHEN: Why do you think they might be concerned?
ANONYMOUS DONOR: Well, the possibility of offspring running into each other and marrying I suppose. But, you know, in the population that we've got I think it's a hell of a long shot, but anyway.
JANINE COHEN: So you're not concerned about any of your own offspring meeting and having a relationship?
ANONYMOUS DONOR: You would be a bit concerned, I suppose.
JANINE COHEN: Is there a concern, though, if there's donor-conceived children out there that they could be having relationships with their half-sisters?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: With their half-sisters and brothers? This has always been brought up as a possibility and if there ultimately are enough of them in a small enough population this is going to happen, but nobody is going to know.
JANINE COHEN: And one reason why no-one would know is that doctors like Straun Robertson deliberately didn't keep the names of donors to protect their anonymity. Dr Robertson was one of the pioneers of donor conception in Australia. Almost 1,000 children were conceived through his private clinic in Macquarie Street, Sydney.
ANONYMOUS DONOR: I've had a phone call at work or something and so I'd have to say, "Look, I've got to just pop out for a cup of coffee or post a letter," or something. So, I'd have to tell my boss, "Look, I'm just going up the road, back shortly."
JANINE COHEN: Throughout mostly the 1980s this man donated 270 times at Dr Straun Robertson's clinic. He says he did it for some pocket money, to support his wife and four daughters, as well as to help infertile couples.
JANINE COHEN: So, is it possible, though, at your own clinic at Macquarie Street that one person could donate 270 times?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Not the slightest, no.
JANINE COHEN: 'Cause he actually...I'll just show you the records he's got here. He...this is your clinic, Macquarie Street here, and that's the first page of records. So, he actually said that he donated something like 270 times at that clinic. Well, those records show that. Could it be possible that he was donating and you were never aware of it?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Er, no, he certainly... he couldn't... He couldn't, he couldn't do that. We knew who we asked to donate.
JANINE COHEN: Would you've had anyone donate that many times, do you think?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Well, I wouldn't be aware that... You say this is from somebody who said yes, he did. I'd be surprised, but I, that would be... If that's so, that's what you've said.
JANINE COHEN: Advocates for donor-conceived children claim legislation like that in Victoria would prevent multiple donations from occurring.
LOUISE JOHNSON, VIC. INFERTILITY TREATMENT AUTHORITY: In Victoria it just couldn't happen.
JANINE COHEN: Why not?
LOUISE JOHNSON: The legislation, the work of the Infertility Treatment Authority, there are guidelines, there is also the registers that have been set up.
JANINE COHEN: So, you'd know on the registers how many times people are donating yourself.
LOUISE JOHNSON: Certainly, so we can track how many offspring arise from a particular donor, so there would be... with that tracking mechanism, that situation just couldn't occur in Victoria.
JANINE COHEN: Professor Douglas Saunders, the former head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sydney University, and now chair of the fertility industry's licensing body, has himself attracted criticism. Four Corners has obtained a copy of a letter written in 1997 where a family complains to Professor Saunders about his own clinic. The patient said she'd discovered her donor contributed to at least 11 families although she'd been promised the clinic's limit was 10. Professor Saunders wrote back - "We are mindful of legislation in other states, but you would appreciate fixing a legal number is fraught with difficulties."
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS, RTAC CHAIRPERSON: Well, this is because of some states have got a small population like Tasmania where...
JANINE COHEN: But this letter is about your own clinic. Why is it a problem at your own clinic?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: It was tied up with the fact some people wanted to have another child within the same family with the same donor.
JANINE COHEN: But then why do your RTAC guidelines work if you say 10 families? If you can't stick to the guidelines or to the rules why should anyone else be able, expected to be able to?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Ah, I don't...
JANINE COHEN: Do you think...
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Well, we can only try, we can only try.
JANINE COHEN: You can only try. Do you think, given instances like this, is RTAC the right body to be the watchdog over the industry?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: I believe it has worked well over the years and I still say this. There has, there is no evidence that harm has been caused over the years.
JANINE COHEN: How would we ever know? There's no records. How would we ever know?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Yes. Yes.
JANINE COHEN: Many donor-conceived adults want an independent authority to monitor the industry. Four Corners has spoken to a former RTAC member who supports this claiming the licensing body is often ineffective.
JANINE COHEN: This former RTAC member of your own committee says that there's often corporate amnesia when they come to inspecting clinics. That the real records... The truth isn't always declared.
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Well, we do our very best. We are human. And we are not policemen. And, ah...
JANINE COHEN: But isn't that just the point - you're not policemen. Shouldn't there be an independent watchdog...?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: I don't believe so.
JANINE COHEN: You don't think there should be an independent watchdog?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Where's the evidence that something's gone wrong?
JANINE COHEN: In the case of the man who donated sperm more than 300 times, there's no way of assessing what impact his actions will have.
JANINE COHEN: I know times have changed but knowing what we know now, is that risky business taking that many donations from one man?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Ah... Yes.
JANINE COHEN: You wouldn't do it now?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: No.
JANINE COHEN: Why do you think you did it then?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: I presume that we were unaware that the numbers were building up over time.
JANINE COHEN: As well as donating at Dr Straun Robertson's practice, this man donated at six other clinics. At the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital he donated 13 times and three boys were born as a result. He also received a letter saying there could be more on the way. At the Royal Hospital for Women in Paddington he donated nine times.
GERALDINE HEWITT, DONOR CONCEIVED ADULT: I've looked at the...piece of paper that records the dates of his donations and where he made them and that man donated at the Royal Hospital for Women around the time that I was conceived.
JANINE COHEN: So what does that all mean?
GERALDINE HEWITT: It means that potentially I could be... the result of somebody donating 300 times and not knowing how many children he's been responsible for.
JANINE COHEN: But Geraldine Hewitt may never know if the multiple donor is her father as her donor's records were destroyed. She believes everyone has the right to know where they biologically come from. Her only hope of knowing her donor's details is if he signs onto a voluntary register at the Royal Women's Hospital in Sydney.
GERALDINE HEWITT: I would like my donor to provide me with his medical history, perhaps a photograph of him at my age, 22. And I'd like him to tell me why he donated and perhaps some things about him. Does he like crazy music like my dad? Does he love reading like I do? What motivates and inspires him?
WARREN HEWITT, GERALDINE'S FATHER: I guess everyone would like to know their roots, they'd like to know a little bit about their genetic background. You know, even if it's just for medical reasons or whatever but it's basically just putting another piece in the puzzle of her identity. You know, so... She's not looking for a father. She's just looking to find information about the person that is her genetic father.
JANINE COHEN: Donor conception raises questions about what constitutes a family and what it is to be a father. Warren Hewitt questioned his ability to be a husband after discovering he was infertile a few years after getting married.
WARREN HEWITT: At the time I was absolutely devastated.
GERALDINE HEWITT: He said that he left work, walked around the city, had no idea where he went, came home and told my mum what the doctor had told him and offered her a divorce.
WARREN HEWITT: Because most of the time... Most people I'd say... All through their life they just grow up thinking, "Oh, yeah, I'll have kids" and you know, it's just a natural progression in life. And when you're told something like that it is a bit of a... It comes as quite a shock. Do they have an odour? Sort of.
JANINE COHEN: After recovering from the news, Warren Hewitt convinced his wife Leonie they should try donor conception. They now have three children from three different donors.
WARREN HEWITT: We believe that they should know about how they were conceived from a very early age so that they can grow up with that information. And it's not... They don't reach 21 and you suddenly hit them with this blockbuster of a piece of information that, you know, "I'm not really your genetic father. Someone else actually helped to conceive you."
GERALDINE HEWITT: I found out about the way I was conceived when I was five and a half. My mum and dad sat me down.
WARREN HEWITT: Basically you explained the facts of life with her and that's how children are conceived in most families, but, you know, this is another way of conceiving a family or creating a family. And, you know, "Another man, another kind man helped us by giving his semen and fertilized mummy's egg." And she sort of thought about it for a little while and said, "We should give that man a present."
JANINE COHEN: Warren Hewitt says his role as a father was never threatened by his children wanting to know more about their donors. His family has led a campaign for years fighting for the rights of donor-conceived children.
WARREN HEWITT: I cannot, um, think that I could possibly love my kids any more if they were genetically related to me. To me, I don't really think of them as being not genetically related to me. To me they're my kids and, you know, that's the way they've been and that's the way they always will be.
GERALDINE HEWITT: I don't think I could ever put it into words how much I love my dad. I don't think that anything would do him justice or... I think that he's just a wonderful man and I think that I've been given a wonderful gift to be born to my mum and my dad.
JANINE COHEN: But not everyone believes donating sperm is a gift. Michael Linden was a donor about 25 years ago.
MICHAEL LINDEN, TANGLED WEBS: I only did it out of a sense of adventure and, you know.
JANINE COHEN: And for the 10 bucks?
MICHAEL LINDEN: And for the $10. The $10 came in handy. Yeah, in those days, I guess, you know, it was worth, it was quite a bit of money.
JANINE COHEN: Michael Linden is now the spokesperson for Tangled Webs, a group calling for a ban on all donor conception. Since finding two of his donor-conceived children, including 24-year-old Myf Walker, he believes the only true father is a genetic one. Father and daughter now regularly see each other.
MICHAEL LINDEN: It needs to be recognised that what you're actually doing is giving away a potential child because you're donating your sperm.
WARREN HEWITT: Giving away a child? Well, he's not, you're not giving away a child. He's giving away semen, really.
JANINE COHEN: Why isn't a social father good enough?
MICHAEL LINDEN: Because he's not the real father. To my mind, he's not the real father.
JANINE COHEN: Donors, as well as their children, should have rights, according to Michael Linden. In Victoria from July next year donors will be able to contact their offspring that are turning 18. The state law provides for contact where there is consent by both parties.
MICHAEL LINDEN, TANGLED WEBS: I think it's a good thing that... Especially for those donors that have changed their mind about, um...18 years. A lot can happen in a lifetime in 18 years, they may have changed their minds. They might have curiosity about those children. They might now consider them to be their children, as I would.
JANINE COHEN: One problem is studies show most of these children have never been told by their parents that they are donor conceived.
MICHAEL LINDEN: You know, it's been said that it would be a traumatic thing for that person to find out that way but I think better that than that they never find out.
JANINE COHEN: Could it be the case that a letter arrives at the doorstep of a donor-conceived child and this is the first time they learn about their origins?
LOUISE JOHNSON, VIC. INFERTILITY AUTHORITY: Certainly as I mentioned before administrative processes have not been set in concrete and whether letters are used or what the process is for communication, that hasn't been... That hasn't been set at the moment.
WARREN HEWITT: Probably will be traumatic for them if they have no idea and they've suddenly got this piece of information dumped on them. You know, that can be a severe blow because it's really... It's a total change in how they perceive themselves as a person.
JANINE COHEN: Why would you want to contact those other three children?
MICHAEL LINDEN: Because they're my children and I want to know who they are and I want them to know who I am.
JANINE COHEN: Many families believe donor conception has been a gift.
WARREN HEWITT: I love Geraldine. I guess the expression when they're little kids, you say, "I love you the whole wide world," and that still applies.
JANINE COHEN: There will always be some who see it as an ill-conceived social experiment. But most agree on one thing. There should be laws in all states to protect the rights of the children.
ANNE SMEE: Well, they need to change the laws because they're not looking at the offspring's right. They're called human rights and everybody has them.
GERALDINE HEWITT: This is the only life that I know - it is a gift. And I think that I would, if I had the chance to write a letter to my donor, I would really just be wanting to say thank you. Whatever reasons he felt compelled to donate, it's irrespective. I got to be born into a family that love me and that care for me. And I love them too.
Date: 24/10/2005
JANINE COHEN: Anonymous donor sperm has helped many Australian families have children. But exactly who and how many have been conceived in clinics like this, nobody knows. Are there any records recording who donor children are in Australia and how many there are?
PROFESSOR DOUGLAS SAUNDERS, RTAC CHAIRPERSON: No.
JANINE COHEN: Are you not concerned about that?
PROFESSOR DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: No, not particularly, no.
JANINE COHEN: This man has no idea how many children he's helped create. He donated sperm more than 300 times. So you're not concerned about any of your own offspring meeting and having a relationship?
ANONYMOUS DONOR: You would be a bit concerned, I suppose.
JANINE COHEN: But what is the impact on children conceived with anonymous donor sperm? These sisters went on a 20-year hunt to find their donor father. What they found shocked them.
ANNE SMEE: He got upset, a bit irate and said, "Don't be ridiculous", and screamed at me and said goodbye.
HELEN EDEL: Finding your grass roots gives you meaning in life, and every child deserves their right to know where they came from.
JANINE COHEN: What do you think the motivation is for donor-conceived children wanting to find out about their donor biological dads?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Oh, in this day and age, everybody's got to know everything about everything.
JANINE COHEN: Tonight on Four Corners, anonymous donor sperm conception. A gift of life, or a social experiment gone wrong? Sally McGreal's about to leave on a three-hour road trip from Melbourne to Albury, just over the border in New South Wales. Her mission - to buy anonymous donor sperm, so she can have a second child. She's part of a growing movement of single women and lesbian couples using a stranger's semen to conceive.
SALLY MCGREAL: I just couldn't see myself without children, and I thought that was all part of... ..what we're supposed to be doing while we're here.
JANINE COHEN: Sally McGreal's forced to travel interstate. In Victoria, only heterosexual couples or infertile women are allowed to access anonymous donor sperm from a fertility clinic. DR. RUTH MCNAIR, SALLY MCGREAL'S MELBOURNE GP: Sally was in that situation of not knowing a known donor, so she was forced to go interstate. So, we talked a bit about which clinics were available, how she might be able to get there. And she was preferring to drive to the clinics, so, Albury seemed to be the most useful avenue for her.
Two years ago, Sally McGreal realised she wasn't going to meet a man she could have a family with. And at the age of 39, her biological clock was ticking. So she decided to go it alone. A hairdresser with her own business and house, she could afford to raise a child. Sally McGreal was very lucky. After only her second visit to Albury, she fell pregnant with Brigit.
JANINE COHEN: Why did you decide to use anonymous donor sperm? Did you ever consider someone you knew, a friend or...?
SALLY MCGREAL: Yeah, but many people have suggested that, but that's not my way of doing things. Personally, I couldn't ask that of a friend.
JANINE COHEN: As a result, Brigit probably will never know her biological father. Her mother chose him from a handful of men. She was given few details. There was no photo and no name.
JANINE COHEN: And it doesn't worry you that Brigit will never know her father because he's anonymous?
SALLY MCGREAL: No, I don't think it... that's the point of donor insemination. That is the point of why I'm going up there, because I haven't found a partner, and I don't really need to know the partner. She doesn't need to know the partner. Or her...donor.
JANINE COHEN: Her donor also decided he wanted it that way. He agreed to donate sperm on the condition it was anonymous. In Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand and the UK, that's now illegal. Only men willing to be identified need apply. But in NSW and most other states - although the industry's licensing body forbids it - as Four Corners will reveal, some clinics are still using anonymous donor sperm.
DR. LIZ MARLES, MEDICAL ADVISOR, DONOR SUPPORT GROUP: Unfortunately it means that without legislation, every month, year, that goes on, we are getting more people who are being born without rights, and without, you know, protection for their identity. And I think that's a, you know, it's a tragic situation, and it really underlies the urgency of getting national legislation.
JANINE COHEN: Sally McGreal is returning to Albury in NSW because she doesn't want Brigit to be an only child.
SALLY MCGREAL: Really, when you are going up to these... to have this sort of thing done, yeah, I don't really have an expectation. You just have to be very relaxed and see what the outcome can be, or will be.
JANINE COHEN: The 41-year-old woman has been given six donors to choose from. What sort of detail did you get on the donor, what sort of things did they tell you?
SALLY MCGREAL: Mainly, you know, your height, your eye colour, weight, origin - being Australian. I think what they've done, are they married, do they have children, their... you know, their present or current job and their academic ability.
JANINE COHEN: According to Sally McGreal's documentation, only two of the six donors were willing to be identified. Anonymous donors are no longer supposed to be used in Australia, according to the licensing body, the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee. But some clinics interpret the RTAC rules differently.
RUTH KEAT, PROGRAM MANAGER, REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE, ALBURY: It's a recommendation, it's not a mandatory requirement.
JANINE COHEN: It's just a guideline...
RUTH KEAT: Exactly, exactly.
JANINE COHEN: And guidelines aren't... are not set in law, are they?
RUTH KEAT: No, they're not, but RTAC has... in order for clinics to be... accredited, they have mandatory recommended requirements. So, some of them are mandatory and they're not negotiable, but with respect to donor for sperm it is definitely a recommendation, but not a requirement.
JANINE COHEN: Ruth Keat is wrong. It's a condition of accreditation. However, clinics who lose RTAC accreditation can still operate. Ruth Keat initially denied her clinic was still using unidentifiable donors. Later, however, she admitted the clinic must have offered Sally McGreal sperm from anonymous donors recruited in Queensland. Accredited clinics have been given until January 2006 to comply.
DR. LIZ MARLES, MEDICAL ADVISOR, DONOR SUPPORT GROUP: There are people out there who are happy to donate, and be identified down the track, if they're fully informed about, you know, what sort of protections there are for them, and what it means.
JANINE COHEN: In NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT, where there's no legislation, the RTAC Code of Practice is the only thing regulating the donor industry. And obviously there's nothing compelling the donor either to respect these rules.
RUTH KEAT, PROGRAM MANAGER, REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE, ALBURY: At the moment, we're recruiting only donors that are willing to be identified in principle. There's no, I guess, mandatory requirement on them to do that, and they may well change their minds. But at the moment, that's definitely what we're looking for, and we ask them in principle to agree to that, yes.
JANINE COHEN: But there's no guarantee, is there?
RUTH KEAT: There's no guarantee.
JANINE COHEN: But Albury also still uses unidentifiable donors. What's your view on that?
DR. RUTH MCNAIR, SALLY MCGREAL'S MELBOURNE GP: Well, I'm very concerned about that. I think many of the patients are too, now.
JANINE COHEN: Many studies show that most donor-conceived children want to know who their donor is. And some of those want to meet him. But that's not something that really concerns Sally McGreal.
SALLY MCGREAL: I would have thought that if you had... if you're happy with your existence as is and your mother and your upbringing that you wouldn't feel that need to go searching because everything you have around you is fulfilled.
DR. RUTH MCNAIR: If Bridget at the age of 8 or 10 or 15, says, "I really have to know who my dad is, my biological dad." She wont be able to find out. And I thinks that's a concern for her.
SALLY MCGREAL: When you think about it for the parent it would probably be a little bit disturbing. 'Cause she'd be wondering what she hasn't done correctly or what she hasn't provided. Why would she want to chase that...that information?
JANINE COHEN: But history shows that even the most loved and well-adjusted of children can still have a desperate longing to know who their donor is. Twins Helen Edel and Anne Smee went on a 20-year detective hunt for their biological father.
HELEN EDEL: I dreamed and fantasised about what my biological father would be like. I used to walk down the street... You look at people's faces. You always wonder.
ANNE SMEE: It's a natural phenomenon to want to know where you're from.
JANINE COHEN: It was not until the sisters were 20 they discovered they were donor conceived.
HELEN EDEL: My mother remarried. And our step-father said to us, "He's not your father, he's not your father," in the heat of an argument.
ANNE SMEE: Back in the 1960s, it just didn't happen. People wouldn't have... Religious, conservative right-winger people would have been shocked to hear that men were donating their sperm.
HELEN EDEL: We got the shock of our lives, you know? All of a sudden finding out this so-called father that brought us up... he really wasn't our father. And we thought, "Oh, my, God. "Well, then, who are we? Where do we come from?" And we'd look in the mirror...
JANINE COHEN: In 1959, the twins' mother was desperate to have children. But her husband was infertile.
HELEN EDEL: Well, her sister...who was a doctor, had a friend at Balmain Hospital. And said, "Look, I know this doctor. "A gynaecologist/obstetrician that might be able to help you out." And she organised a meeting with him.
JANINE COHEN: The sisters were born in March 1960, but didn't know until 1980 they were donor conceived. When they did learn the family secret it fuelled a desperate desire to know more. Who was their biological father? Did they look like him? Were there any genetic illnesses in his family? They asked their mother for more information.
HELEN EDEL: In those days the sperm was fresh. "So who was the man whose fresh sperm...you know? Who was he? Did you see him? Did you walk into the room? What happened? What happened?" You know?
JANINE COHEN: All their mother could tell them was that she visited the Balmain Hospital and the name of the specialist that treated her. His name was Dr John Doherty.
ANNE SMEE: I rang up the doctor myself, personally. And said, "Is there any possible chance I could have a photo of our biological father?" He got upset and a bit irate. And said, "Don't be ridiculous." And screamed at me and said goodbye.
HELEN EDEL: She got terribly upset because he had no... He had no inkling that this was our whole meaning in our life. And how dare he dismiss us as if we're being frivolous?
ANNE SMEE: I was very upset. I couldn't stop crying. I must have cried all day for one day. And then put it all to rest...for 20 years.
JANINE COHEN: The sisters' search hit a brick wall. They tried to get on with their lives - married and started families of their own. But they never lost that longing to know who their biological father was.
PHILIP EDEL, HELEN'S HUSBAND: Helen didn't feel she could be settled and neither could Anne. I mean, they're very alike, as identical twins will be. And for both of them there was just this missing piece of life's jigsaw puzzle. And it was important to them to finish the puzzle.
JANINE COHEN: Three years after discovering they were donor conceived, the sisters persuaded their mother to ask Dr Doherty for any records he'd kept. Then Anne Smee followed up with a letter.
HELEN EDEL: Well, my sister wrote a letter to Dr Doherty asking, "Have you got a photograph? Just a photograph or a bit of history of who he might be, of where we came from... We don't really want to meet him. We just want a photograph. Or a bit of background to our DNA. That's all we're asking for."
JANINE COHEN: To the sisters' amazement, Dr Doherty wrote back a detailed description of the anonymous donor.
MAN READS: "He is fourth-generation Australian. Black hair, brown eyes, about 5 feet 10 inches, olive skin and medium build. Physically, he was considered to be a ruggedly good-looking young man with a squarish face and good teeth when he laughed. He was quite athletic."
JANINE COHEN: But the doctor refused to release the donor's name or any medical history other than to say the man was also a doctor.
JANINE COHEN: You weren't after a father figure?
ANNE SMEE: No, weren't after a father figure because we had our father, raised us. Yeah, it's just curiosity more than anything. To see what you look like, to where you're from. Just interesting to see what...who made you. (Reads) "Dear Anne, your mother wrote to me recently. So I was quite pleased to hear from you. The donor was a very bright young doctor who has since become a successful specialist in experimental medicine. So the IQ part is quite OK..."
JANINE COHEN: The sisters read the letter over and over again, thinking that this would be the most they'd ever learn about their donor father.
PHILIP EDEL, HELEN'S HUSBAND: It was something that was fairly consuming. I think for both of them because it wasn't just a flighty thing. It really meant everything to them to know the story and to know what the answers were.
JANINE COHEN: It would be another 20 years before they'd get to the bottom of the mystery. In 2003, they read about a support group for donor-conceived children.
HELEN EDEL: We showed them our letter. And they said, "Gee, that letter looks funny."
LEONIE HEWITT, DONOR CONCEPTION SUPPORT GROUP: He talked about his academic abilities. His profession. His...teeth, interestingly. And I thought to myself, "How could a doctor know "how the donor's teeth were 20 years later?" I listened to the letter. And I very, very carefully said to them in a very gentle way, "Have you ever thought that the doctor could be the donor?"
JANINE COHEN: What did they say?
LEONIE HEWITT: There was silence at the other end of the phone. It was like I'd landed a bomb in their...in her lap. And I said to her that some doctors were donors.
JANINE COHEN: Now the sisters were on a mission to find the truth. The first thing they wanted to know was what Dr John Doherty looked like. And did he look like them? They went to the medical library at Sydney University and looked through the yearbooks for his picture.
ANNE SMEE: We looked at photos to see if we could see pictures of ourself.
JANINE COHEN: And what did you see staring back from the pages?
ANNE SMEE: Someone that looked like us.
JANINE COHEN: But the twins couldn't be certain that John Doherty was their father. By this time, he'd long retired and left Sydney. And his trail seemed to end there.
HELEN EDEL: We still had no proof. So I knew that we were on our way to solving the puzzle but we weren't there yet.
ANNE SMEE: Now we had to work out - was this true? So that's when... we tried to locate Dr Doherty.
HELEN EDEL: So we did a bit of research on the Internet. And I traced Dr Doherty to Balmain Hospital. Then I traced him... He had a practice in St Ives. We researched on the Net. And painstakingly tracked his career.
JANINE COHEN: They traced him to a small country town in New South Wales. And they telephoned every Doherty in the area until they finally found the doctor's wife in a retirement home.
HELEN EDEL: I've got...started to get a few butterflies in the tummy. I started to think, "Well, maybe we're...we're coming to an end."
JANINE COHEN: Helen Edel spoke to his wife only to be told the bad news - Dr Doherty had died 10 years earlier. The women were devastated. They thought they would never learn the truth.
HELEN EDEL: Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was another man. So we're still... We're not sure, you know? We're not sure yet.
JANINE COHEN: What they discovered was that Dr Doherty had a son. They potentially had a half-brother. But how would they ever know?
ANNE SMEE: Helen rang up what would have been our biological half-brother. And asked him would he consent to a DNA test?
HELEN EDEL: I was very nervous. Because, you know, this strange person ringing up saying, "Look, we think Dr Doherty might be our father."
ANNE SMEE: Well, he was shocked, equally as shocked, to think he's got two half-sisters running around.
HELEN EDEL: I told him how we were, you know, really trying to find some meaning in our life. And, "Would you agree?" I said, "Look, we don't want any money. All we wanna do...is a picture, a bit of medical record... Would you agree to a DNA test?"
JANINE COHEN: Incredibly, the son did agree. And the result was conclusive. The DNA test showed that Dr John Doherty was their genetic father.
ANNE SMEE: I feel great because I know who I am and where I'm from. So it was a great end to a 20-year secret.
HELEN EDEL: There it was. There was the answer, you know? After all those... After all those years of...not knowing where we came from. And... Excuse me, yeah. So all of a sudden, the whole meaning in our lives came back.
PHILIP EDEL, HELEN'S HUSBAND: I think all credit to her for persevering, and the same to Anne. That they weren't going to give up. They were just going to keep at it until they got the answers. And once they got the answers, it was good. They could put it to rest. It wasn't going to be something that would continue to be consuming their lives.
JANINE COHEN: The twins only met their genetic half-brother once. After helping them put the final piece of the puzzle together, he declined further contact. He also declined to speak to Four Corners.
ANNE SMEE: He got worried about his family and his reputation. So I think now he regrets that he consulted to the DNA test because it's HIS father. You can understand his perspective too. It was his dad.
JANINE COHEN: Dr Doherty breached good clinical practice by donating his own sperm to a patient and not telling them. But there were no medical ethics for donor conception in 1959. The twins believe Dr Doherty was well intentioned and were only upset that he'd kept it a secret all his life.
JANINE COHEN: What do you think motivated Dr Doherty to donate his own sperm?
HELEN EDEL: I think deep down he wanted to help women that desperately wanted to have children. But really, he didn't really think it out. And didn't really think of the bigger picture.
JANINE COHEN: The sisters wonder if Dr Doherty had donated his sperm to other women. Potentially they could have more half-brothers and sisters.
ANNE SMEE: How many people did Dr Doherty artificially inseminate? How many women? I mean, if people donate lots of sperm, well, how...yeah, you could walk around and you'd be making love to your half-brother or half-sister. I mean, it's bizarre.
HELEN EDEL: It worries us a little bit. We always make jokes there could be half a dozen other people walking out there with a similar DNA and what would happen if they met one of our children?
ANNE SMEE: Sometimes you're attracted to people that look like yourself, you know, they've done studies.
HELEN EDEL: I think there should be a national register of people that are going to donate their sperm. There should be medical histories, their record, so that that could avoid that happening.
JANINE COHEN: Many doctors believe a national register is needed for any children conceived in the future with donor sperm.
DR. LIZ MARLES, MEDICAL ADVISOR, DONOR SUPPORT GROUP: I think that those things are really important from an accountability point of view and they provide security for everybody in the system. They provide security for the donor, to know that his donations are going to be used ethically. They provide security for the parents who can raise the child and be open and honest knowing that the questions that come up will have answers.
JANINE COHEN: One of the most common criticisms of central registers and using only identifiable donors is that fewer men will donate sperm. But Professor Gab Kovacs at Monash IVF in Melbourne has worked with the Victorian register and used only identifiable donors for years. And he's seen no shortage of sperm as a result.
JANINE COHEN: What's the advantage, do you think, of a national registry?
PROFESSOR GAB KOVACS, MONASH IVF: Well, at least it would cover people going from state to state. It would also give us statistics on a national level, which are hard to get at the moment, and again it would register donors so that donors would be on the same system.
JANINE COHEN: But some in the fertility industry don't want a central register. Professor Douglas Saunders, chair of the industry's licensing body for the last five years, wouldn't support any moves for a national register.
JANINE COHEN: Are there any records recording who donor children are in Australia and how many there are?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS, REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY ACCREDITATION COMMITTEE: No.
JANINE COHEN: Are you not concerned about that?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: No, not particularly. No.
JANINE COHEN: Why aren't you concerned that we don't know who they are?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Because it's impractical. We don't live in a police state.
PROFESSOR GAB KOVACS, MONASH IVF: Doug's entitled to his opinion. I've worked under the Victorian law and we can work with it and we can see where it's coming from and I believe it could be used nationally without unnecessarily restricting the freedom of people in other states.
JANINE COHEN: Do you think there should be national records where we know, where people know who and how many donor conceived children there are in Australia?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: I think the Australian people would not agree to that - that would be a huge invasion of privacy.
JANINE COHEN: Why would it be an invasion of privacy to have medical records documenting who's donor conceived? Why would that be an invasion of privacy?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Well, would you want everything about you in some big database in Canberra?
DR. LIZ MARLES, MEDICAL ADVISOR, DONOR SUPPORT GROUP: I think it is extraordinary that we're in the 21st century and records as fundamental as those about a person's identity have no security and we don't even know if they're if they're being kept.
JANINE COHEN: Victoria passed legislation almost 20 years ago making central registers mandatory. The records are kept by a state government body, the Infertility Treatment Authority, and can only be accessed with the consent of all parties.
DR. LIZ MARLES: It's important to know who you're related to and that you're not forming a relationship with someone who may be a half-sibling. I think it's a really central part of understanding who you are as a person.
JANINE COHEN: Four Corners has found cases of donor-conceived children meeting socially and not knowing they're related. On Sydney's North Shore there were two full siblings, a brother and sister, the result of embryo transplants, growing up in separate families but in the same neighbourhood. They were also believed to be at the same school. Four Corners believes neither children nor their parents knew of the situation. The children were conceived in the clinic that Professor Saunders was working in.
JANINE COHEN: Do you find that a reason for concern?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: I can't comment on that.
JANINE COHEN: Why not?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: It's a too hy... It's a hy... It's a question I don't know enough about. All I can...
JANINE COHEN: Would it surprise you to learn that those recipients come from your clinic?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: That they go to the same school? It wouldn't surprise me, no. It would not surprise me.
JANINE COHEN: This man has no idea how many children he's helped create. He donated sperm 318 times from 1979 to 1992. Four Corners obtained a copy of his personal records detailing where and when he donated. He agreed to do an interview on the proviso he wasn't identified. So you donated 318 times. How many offspring do you think there could be out there?
ANONYMOUS DONOR: I wouldn't have a clue.
DR. LIZ MARLES: I think it's appalling and I hate to think that that is something that has happened commonly. I would be extremely surprised if it has...
JANINE COHEN: But how would we know? DR. LIZ MARLES: Look, well, unfortunately we can't know.
JANINE COHEN: Why do you think they might be concerned?
ANONYMOUS DONOR: Well, the possibility of offspring running into each other and marrying I suppose. But, you know, in the population that we've got I think it's a hell of a long shot, but anyway.
JANINE COHEN: So you're not concerned about any of your own offspring meeting and having a relationship?
ANONYMOUS DONOR: You would be a bit concerned, I suppose.
JANINE COHEN: Is there a concern, though, if there's donor-conceived children out there that they could be having relationships with their half-sisters?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: With their half-sisters and brothers? This has always been brought up as a possibility and if there ultimately are enough of them in a small enough population this is going to happen, but nobody is going to know.
JANINE COHEN: And one reason why no-one would know is that doctors like Straun Robertson deliberately didn't keep the names of donors to protect their anonymity. Dr Robertson was one of the pioneers of donor conception in Australia. Almost 1,000 children were conceived through his private clinic in Macquarie Street, Sydney.
ANONYMOUS DONOR: I've had a phone call at work or something and so I'd have to say, "Look, I've got to just pop out for a cup of coffee or post a letter," or something. So, I'd have to tell my boss, "Look, I'm just going up the road, back shortly."
JANINE COHEN: Throughout mostly the 1980s this man donated 270 times at Dr Straun Robertson's clinic. He says he did it for some pocket money, to support his wife and four daughters, as well as to help infertile couples.
JANINE COHEN: So, is it possible, though, at your own clinic at Macquarie Street that one person could donate 270 times?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Not the slightest, no.
JANINE COHEN: 'Cause he actually...I'll just show you the records he's got here. He...this is your clinic, Macquarie Street here, and that's the first page of records. So, he actually said that he donated something like 270 times at that clinic. Well, those records show that. Could it be possible that he was donating and you were never aware of it?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Er, no, he certainly... he couldn't... He couldn't, he couldn't do that. We knew who we asked to donate.
JANINE COHEN: Would you've had anyone donate that many times, do you think?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Well, I wouldn't be aware that... You say this is from somebody who said yes, he did. I'd be surprised, but I, that would be... If that's so, that's what you've said.
JANINE COHEN: Advocates for donor-conceived children claim legislation like that in Victoria would prevent multiple donations from occurring.
LOUISE JOHNSON, VIC. INFERTILITY TREATMENT AUTHORITY: In Victoria it just couldn't happen.
JANINE COHEN: Why not?
LOUISE JOHNSON: The legislation, the work of the Infertility Treatment Authority, there are guidelines, there is also the registers that have been set up.
JANINE COHEN: So, you'd know on the registers how many times people are donating yourself.
LOUISE JOHNSON: Certainly, so we can track how many offspring arise from a particular donor, so there would be... with that tracking mechanism, that situation just couldn't occur in Victoria.
JANINE COHEN: Professor Douglas Saunders, the former head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sydney University, and now chair of the fertility industry's licensing body, has himself attracted criticism. Four Corners has obtained a copy of a letter written in 1997 where a family complains to Professor Saunders about his own clinic. The patient said she'd discovered her donor contributed to at least 11 families although she'd been promised the clinic's limit was 10. Professor Saunders wrote back - "We are mindful of legislation in other states, but you would appreciate fixing a legal number is fraught with difficulties."
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS, RTAC CHAIRPERSON: Well, this is because of some states have got a small population like Tasmania where...
JANINE COHEN: But this letter is about your own clinic. Why is it a problem at your own clinic?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: It was tied up with the fact some people wanted to have another child within the same family with the same donor.
JANINE COHEN: But then why do your RTAC guidelines work if you say 10 families? If you can't stick to the guidelines or to the rules why should anyone else be able, expected to be able to?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Ah, I don't...
JANINE COHEN: Do you think...
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Well, we can only try, we can only try.
JANINE COHEN: You can only try. Do you think, given instances like this, is RTAC the right body to be the watchdog over the industry?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: I believe it has worked well over the years and I still say this. There has, there is no evidence that harm has been caused over the years.
JANINE COHEN: How would we ever know? There's no records. How would we ever know?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Yes. Yes.
JANINE COHEN: Many donor-conceived adults want an independent authority to monitor the industry. Four Corners has spoken to a former RTAC member who supports this claiming the licensing body is often ineffective.
JANINE COHEN: This former RTAC member of your own committee says that there's often corporate amnesia when they come to inspecting clinics. That the real records... The truth isn't always declared.
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Well, we do our very best. We are human. And we are not policemen. And, ah...
JANINE COHEN: But isn't that just the point - you're not policemen. Shouldn't there be an independent watchdog...?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: I don't believe so.
JANINE COHEN: You don't think there should be an independent watchdog?
PROF. DOUGLAS SAUNDERS: Where's the evidence that something's gone wrong?
JANINE COHEN: In the case of the man who donated sperm more than 300 times, there's no way of assessing what impact his actions will have.
JANINE COHEN: I know times have changed but knowing what we know now, is that risky business taking that many donations from one man?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: Ah... Yes.
JANINE COHEN: You wouldn't do it now?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: No.
JANINE COHEN: Why do you think you did it then?
DR. STRAUN ROBERTSON: I presume that we were unaware that the numbers were building up over time.
JANINE COHEN: As well as donating at Dr Straun Robertson's practice, this man donated at six other clinics. At the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital he donated 13 times and three boys were born as a result. He also received a letter saying there could be more on the way. At the Royal Hospital for Women in Paddington he donated nine times.
GERALDINE HEWITT, DONOR CONCEIVED ADULT: I've looked at the...piece of paper that records the dates of his donations and where he made them and that man donated at the Royal Hospital for Women around the time that I was conceived.
JANINE COHEN: So what does that all mean?
GERALDINE HEWITT: It means that potentially I could be... the result of somebody donating 300 times and not knowing how many children he's been responsible for.
JANINE COHEN: But Geraldine Hewitt may never know if the multiple donor is her father as her donor's records were destroyed. She believes everyone has the right to know where they biologically come from. Her only hope of knowing her donor's details is if he signs onto a voluntary register at the Royal Women's Hospital in Sydney.
GERALDINE HEWITT: I would like my donor to provide me with his medical history, perhaps a photograph of him at my age, 22. And I'd like him to tell me why he donated and perhaps some things about him. Does he like crazy music like my dad? Does he love reading like I do? What motivates and inspires him?
WARREN HEWITT, GERALDINE'S FATHER: I guess everyone would like to know their roots, they'd like to know a little bit about their genetic background. You know, even if it's just for medical reasons or whatever but it's basically just putting another piece in the puzzle of her identity. You know, so... She's not looking for a father. She's just looking to find information about the person that is her genetic father.
JANINE COHEN: Donor conception raises questions about what constitutes a family and what it is to be a father. Warren Hewitt questioned his ability to be a husband after discovering he was infertile a few years after getting married.
WARREN HEWITT: At the time I was absolutely devastated.
GERALDINE HEWITT: He said that he left work, walked around the city, had no idea where he went, came home and told my mum what the doctor had told him and offered her a divorce.
WARREN HEWITT: Because most of the time... Most people I'd say... All through their life they just grow up thinking, "Oh, yeah, I'll have kids" and you know, it's just a natural progression in life. And when you're told something like that it is a bit of a... It comes as quite a shock. Do they have an odour? Sort of.
JANINE COHEN: After recovering from the news, Warren Hewitt convinced his wife Leonie they should try donor conception. They now have three children from three different donors.
WARREN HEWITT: We believe that they should know about how they were conceived from a very early age so that they can grow up with that information. And it's not... They don't reach 21 and you suddenly hit them with this blockbuster of a piece of information that, you know, "I'm not really your genetic father. Someone else actually helped to conceive you."
GERALDINE HEWITT: I found out about the way I was conceived when I was five and a half. My mum and dad sat me down.
WARREN HEWITT: Basically you explained the facts of life with her and that's how children are conceived in most families, but, you know, this is another way of conceiving a family or creating a family. And, you know, "Another man, another kind man helped us by giving his semen and fertilized mummy's egg." And she sort of thought about it for a little while and said, "We should give that man a present."
JANINE COHEN: Warren Hewitt says his role as a father was never threatened by his children wanting to know more about their donors. His family has led a campaign for years fighting for the rights of donor-conceived children.
WARREN HEWITT: I cannot, um, think that I could possibly love my kids any more if they were genetically related to me. To me, I don't really think of them as being not genetically related to me. To me they're my kids and, you know, that's the way they've been and that's the way they always will be.
GERALDINE HEWITT: I don't think I could ever put it into words how much I love my dad. I don't think that anything would do him justice or... I think that he's just a wonderful man and I think that I've been given a wonderful gift to be born to my mum and my dad.
JANINE COHEN: But not everyone believes donating sperm is a gift. Michael Linden was a donor about 25 years ago.
MICHAEL LINDEN, TANGLED WEBS: I only did it out of a sense of adventure and, you know.
JANINE COHEN: And for the 10 bucks?
MICHAEL LINDEN: And for the $10. The $10 came in handy. Yeah, in those days, I guess, you know, it was worth, it was quite a bit of money.
JANINE COHEN: Michael Linden is now the spokesperson for Tangled Webs, a group calling for a ban on all donor conception. Since finding two of his donor-conceived children, including 24-year-old Myf Walker, he believes the only true father is a genetic one. Father and daughter now regularly see each other.
MICHAEL LINDEN: It needs to be recognised that what you're actually doing is giving away a potential child because you're donating your sperm.
WARREN HEWITT: Giving away a child? Well, he's not, you're not giving away a child. He's giving away semen, really.
JANINE COHEN: Why isn't a social father good enough?
MICHAEL LINDEN: Because he's not the real father. To my mind, he's not the real father.
JANINE COHEN: Donors, as well as their children, should have rights, according to Michael Linden. In Victoria from July next year donors will be able to contact their offspring that are turning 18. The state law provides for contact where there is consent by both parties.
MICHAEL LINDEN, TANGLED WEBS: I think it's a good thing that... Especially for those donors that have changed their mind about, um...18 years. A lot can happen in a lifetime in 18 years, they may have changed their minds. They might have curiosity about those children. They might now consider them to be their children, as I would.
JANINE COHEN: One problem is studies show most of these children have never been told by their parents that they are donor conceived.
MICHAEL LINDEN: You know, it's been said that it would be a traumatic thing for that person to find out that way but I think better that than that they never find out.
JANINE COHEN: Could it be the case that a letter arrives at the doorstep of a donor-conceived child and this is the first time they learn about their origins?
LOUISE JOHNSON, VIC. INFERTILITY AUTHORITY: Certainly as I mentioned before administrative processes have not been set in concrete and whether letters are used or what the process is for communication, that hasn't been... That hasn't been set at the moment.
WARREN HEWITT: Probably will be traumatic for them if they have no idea and they've suddenly got this piece of information dumped on them. You know, that can be a severe blow because it's really... It's a total change in how they perceive themselves as a person.
JANINE COHEN: Why would you want to contact those other three children?
MICHAEL LINDEN: Because they're my children and I want to know who they are and I want them to know who I am.
JANINE COHEN: Many families believe donor conception has been a gift.
WARREN HEWITT: I love Geraldine. I guess the expression when they're little kids, you say, "I love you the whole wide world," and that still applies.
JANINE COHEN: There will always be some who see it as an ill-conceived social experiment. But most agree on one thing. There should be laws in all states to protect the rights of the children.
ANNE SMEE: Well, they need to change the laws because they're not looking at the offspring's right. They're called human rights and everybody has them.
GERALDINE HEWITT: This is the only life that I know - it is a gift. And I think that I would, if I had the chance to write a letter to my donor, I would really just be wanting to say thank you. Whatever reasons he felt compelled to donate, it's irrespective. I got to be born into a family that love me and that care for me. And I love them too.