What Does This Mean For Us?

Cynthia Davis, of the Missouri State Legislature is looking to ban anonymous donations in the state of Missouri and give all donor-conceived offspring the right to access the donor's identity at age 21. She is hoping to have a hearing about her bill (HB355) within the next three months. She is looking for donor-conceived adults and families from Missouri to speak there.

The Summary of the Introduced Bill:

HB 355 -- Sperm and Egg Donations

Sponsor: Davis

This bill allows an adult child born as a result of a sperm or egg donation to obtain identifying information regarding the donor by requiring the name of the biological parent and the donor parent to be shown on the child's birth certificate.

The State Registrar will file the original birth certificate in the event the non-donor parent requests a new birth certificate. Unless contracted in writing, no legal relationship will exist between the child born as a result of a sperm or egg donation or the child's parent and the child's donor.

In the event of a birth as a result of a sperm or egg donor, any person or entity required to file a birth certificate must send the Department of Health and Senior Services documentation of the birth including the child's name, sex, and date and place of birth; the biological parent's name or other parent's name; and the donor parent's name. An adult child of a sperm or egg donation made prior to January 1, 2010, can make a written request to the circuit court in the county in which he or she resides to secure and disclose identifying information of his or her donor parent.

Donor parents can register with the Children's Division within the Department of Social Services if they choose to allow a child to obtain his or her identifying information. Any adult child born as a result of a sperm or egg donation will be subject to the same requirements as an adopted child when seeking identifying or non-identifying information regarding his or her donor parent.

Children born as a result of a sperm or egg donation made after January 1, 2010, can receive a copy of his or her original birth certificate indicating his or her donor's identifying and medical history information from the State Registrar and the donation facility.

As a parent of a child via egg donation, I have a problem with some of the language in this bill. An egg donor is not a parent. Period. A parent is a a father or mother; one who begets or one who gives birth to or nurtures and raises a child; a relative who plays the role of guardian.

How is an egg donor or a sperm donor for that matter a parent? This whole donor mother or donor father, or genetic mother or father terminology is concerning on a whole.

While I am grateful to my egg donor -- the fact of the matter is she gave me one cell. It is tissue -- that has 23 chromosomes, a strand of DNA, and that cell mixed with my husbands sperm cell created an embryo that *I* carried, nurtured, birthed, and am raising. Not the egg donor.

If The State of Missouri passed this bill does this mean every other state in the Union is going to follow suit?

I want the government to stay out of my uterus, thank you very much.