Who's your daddy?

October 30, 2007 6:38 PM

How can someone who was conceived by artificial insemination get some information about her identity?

Hello. I'm the product of artificial insemination done in the US during the late 70s. I understand that it is impossible to ever know who my biological father is, but I am curious about my roots and also, more practically, if I am prone to any sickness or diseases. I'm not sure if I have a right to find this stuff out. A staff at the hospital where "I" was, um, conceived volunteered to help me a few years ago get those documents which I am entitled to see (whatever they are), but after a few weeks, she said that my records were missing, probably destroyed in a flood which occurred years ago. So in the end: nothing.

Is there anything I can do to get some information about my ancestry? I'm curious about who I am and wonder if any of you know of any options to find out _anything_ at all. Much appreciated.

Personal emails can be sent to

[e-mail]

posted by anonymous to human relations (9 comments total)

If you're male, you can get a y-chromosome ancestry thing done - at least for general information. (Linky) In women, the equivalent is mDNA, which is on the maternal line, so it's not helpful for your purposes.
posted by cobaltnine at 6:41 PM on October 30, 2007

Donor Sibling Registry. Web site includes sample letters to clinics and sperm banks and other FAQs.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 8:25 PM on October 30, 2007

Be warned -- regarding the DNA tests cobaltnine mentioned (GeneBase/DNA Ancestry Project) there is an avalanche of complaints about this company. Caveat emptor.
posted by rolypolyman at 9:01 PM on October 30, 2007

Whoo...my bad. I just gave out the first link that popped up. OTOH, the poster does appear to be female on later reads, so that's not helpful for her either.

There are some more legitimate companies out there - I was going to say 'doesn't National Geographic have one' but it looks like there's a bunch of protests about that one...sigh. YMMV.
posted by cobaltnine at 9:59 PM on October 30, 2007

CBC Radio One's Ideas recently featured a documentary ("Brave New Families") about this very topic. The episode doesn't appear to be archived or available on their podcast, probably for copyright reasons. However, this episode info page does list some external links to resources that may be helpful to you, such as the Donor Sibling Registry that ClaudiaCenter linked to above.

(It was a very moving documentary, and it really explored the complexity of the issues surrounding artificial insemination. If you ever come across a repeat/archive of the programme, I highly recommend it.)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:17 AM on October 31, 2007

I don't think the information you want exists on any sheet of paper. Even the medical history of the donor leading to your conception was probably not thorough. Moreover, I wonder if there is a disincentive for a donor to list any history of medical issues since it probably disqualifies him from donating and therefore being compensated.

Using a DNA analysis company would yield dubious results. I don't believe a comprehensive survey of ethnicities and their distinguishing genetic markers has been done yet. Any company claiming to have this data has probably not subjected their techniques to peer review. Furthermore, determining one's medical predispostions from their ethnicity is not really informative either, except in a few niche cases.

However, using DNA analysis is probably your best bet to learn about your past and any medical concerns. Services like this aren't ready yet but I would check in on the state-of-technology in five year increments. I'd expect more informative results would be available after a decade or two.
posted by dendrite at 1:06 AM on October 31, 2007

I wouldn't be so sure that the records are missing. Call back and find a hospital advocate again, especially if it's been a few years.
posted by barnone at 8:32 AM on October 31, 2007

My wife and I used an anonymous donor to get pregnant with our twins (and another on the way). This was recent - all within the last 3 years - so there might be quite a bit of difference from the 70's, but in case it might help:

Our experience was that the sperm banks - and we researched many - gather differing levels of information about the donors, most of which they make available to the 'purchaser'. With the most detailed sperm banks, you get a complete set of medical and appearance info on the donor, siblings, parents and grandparents, as well as essays, childhood pictures, personality traits etc about the donor. This includes history of health disease, diabetes - all sorts of major illnesses.

If your parents did not keep this profile for you, your best bet would be to go to the sperm bank to get it. Of course you'd have to know a lot of info - the name of the sperm bank, the date of purchase, date of conception. Some of your own physical characteristics may also come in useful - skin color, hair/eye color, height etc - though of course that's iffy at best.

I'd pursue the hospital angle further - ok, I guess records could have been lost, but someone may not have looked hard enough.

The last thing I want to leave you with is this: though the testing was not as rigorous then as it is now, I think you can feel fairly confident that your father did not have any major known illnesses/genetic 'faults' - nobody would have wanted to purchase his sperm. Nowadays, the majority of sperm donors seem to be med school students - I'd imagine a lot of donors from back then would be too.

Good luck. My wife and I think about this frequently - how to answer questions about our kids' biological father (we're two women) - and we are keeping his profile so that they can have as much info on him as we do.
posted by widdershins at 11:45 AM on October 31, 2007

Interesting. A college friend of mine was conceived this way in the late 70s and I always thought that if I were in here shoes, I'd want to get a complete medical history. She never really seemed concerned, but I suppose the information wouldn't be useful until she was around your age.

Thought about hiring a private investigator? It may be possible that the hospital stored backups of your records off-site, but a low-wage, overworked hospital employee doesn't want to go to the trouble of finding out.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 4:33 PM on October 31, 2007