Public Eye did an excellent job in reporting on all the potential problems which could result from full openness — suggesting, for example, that donor children could end up looking for their "natural" father and try to forge a relationship where none existed. The typical sperm donors are young men (often medical students) who are simply paid £15 for a sample and who have no further interest in any offspring that might be conceived. But one San Francisco sperm bank already has a number of "identity release" donors; when their offspring reach 18 they are then entitled to information on their natural fathers.
—"Public Eye (BBC 2, Friday)," The Irish Times, May 11, 1993
The practice of consensually releasing the identity of sperm bank donors — also described as a
yes-donor program — originated in 1983 with
The Sperm Bank of California (which holds a service-mark — the service industry equivalent of a trademark — on the phrase
identity release). Since the agreement states that a child must be 18 before he or she can attempt to contact the donor, 2002 was the first year in which such contact could be made. A small media storm erupted earlier this year when "Claire L." was the first to learn the identity of
donor-father on January 29, 2002, the day she turned 18. So far, she has elected not to contact her father, nor have any of the other 15 children who turn 18 this year.
The Sperm Bank of California says that about 70 percent of its donors are identity-release, and about 80 percent of families choose identity-release donors when making their selection for insemination.
Note, too, that there are also open-identity programs in which the donor's identity is known prior to insemination.
