Donor insemination has become more accessible in recent years thanks to a growing number of commercial sperm banks. However, certain abuses related to this assisted reproduction procedure continue to be the subject of debate, such as the use of a single donor for the conception of numerous children in different families and the deliberate substitution of the sperm sample that the parents chose, whether it be with sperm from another donor, another patient or the doctor who performed the insemination. This international project aimed to document the experiences of people born thanks to sperm donation who are affected by these two kinds of abuse in order to better understand underlying ethical issues. The results helped inform decision-makers about the psychosocial repercussions of these abuses, and the need to establish a maximum number of births per donor and create legislation to ban the deliberate substitution of sperm samples.
This project was led by principal investigator Sabrina Zeghiche (UQO) with co-researchers Isabel Côté (UQO), Kévin Lavoie (U Laval) and Vincent Couture (U Laval).
This project was made possible thanks to financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) [Insight Development 2021–2023].
