June 2025, Europe : Rights of donor-conceived persons to know their origins
CHIP had the honour of presenting to the expert group tasked to prepare a recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the rights of donor-conceived persons to know their origins at the inaugural meeting. CHIP was able to encourage the Committee to ensure that child rights were the central focus of the recommendation, starting with the principle of human dignity. The onus should be on States that allow for third party reproduction, to establish safeguards so that at birth, children can fully enjoy all their rights. While the right to know their origins is important, efforts are needed to ensure that children can also be proud of their origins. This may entail limiting the use of certain human reproductive material such as from serial donors, material that is more than ten years old and/or from persons who are deceased. Some other participants emphasised that donor conception should not be compared with “naissance sous X”, abandonment and/or adoption, as these practices involve tragedies that is foreign to third party reproduction. While CHIP concedes that there are differences, some donor conceived persons, also live with tragedies. The tragedy of not knowing their origins. Such tragedies can be avoided. CHIP looks forward to supporting the work of the Committee in any way that is helpful. CHIP was very encouraged to see that the voices of those with lived experiences, especially donor-conceived persons, was prioritised during the meeting.
