A group of academics, attorneys, and organizations working on reproductive justice and assisted reproduction and representing children and families of LGBTQ+ parents have collaborated on this statement of principles and policy positions on gamete provision.

Overarching Principles

1. We celebrate and embrace diversity in families. Families formed through donor conception are equally entitled to respect and to legal protection under the law.
   
   
2. We are skeptical of laws and regulations that treat families formed through assisted reproduction differently from other families by treating their experience as exceptional.
   
   
3. We are committed to addressing issues regarding gamete provision by considering the interests of all affected participants, including children, parents, prospective parents, and gamete donors.
   
   
4. We envision a system of gamete provision in which all parties’ interests are protected. We are committed to supporting clear and transparent systems of gamete provision that:
   • Make non-identifying health information available to intended parents and donor-conceived people.
   • Inform all parties of the processes involved in collecting information, the distribution of gametes, and the limits regarding agreements pertaining to identity disclosure.
   • Provide information about how the extent of heritability of certain traits is not currently known.
   • Follow anti-discrimination policies in selecting donors.
     
     
5. We are committed to addressing issues regarding gamete provision from the perspective of Reproductive Justice (RJ), which includes the ability to have or not to have a child and the ability to birth and parent in a supportive environment.
   
   
6. We are committed to equitable and meaningful access to family building through assisted reproduction, particularly for communities–including women, people of color, low-income people, LGBQ people, transgender and non-binary people, and people with disabilities–who have been, and continue to be, marginalized and harmed by practices and policies regulating reproduction. This commitment requires: policies and practices that do not perpetuate stereotypes; avoiding unnecessary barriers to gamete donation, a diverse gamete pool, or the ability to access gamete donation; broader financial coverage for treatment; and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws governing access to healthcare, including reproductive healthcare.

7. We are committed to a pluralistic approach to family formation, which respects and protects family formation through assisted reproduction regardless of whether medical professionals are involved.
   
   
8. We are committed to fostering and supporting family relationships characterized by trust and transparency.
   
   
9. We are committed to a system of family recognition, including recognition of parent-child relationships, that fully respects and protects non-genetic relationships and that does not assume that a biological or genetic connection necessarily creates a family relationship.
   
   
10. We are committed to ensuring the integrity, dignity, and legal security of LGBTQ parents, their children, and their families.
    
    
11.  ​We are committed to systems of accountability that require medical professionals, clinics, banks, and programs to act in good faith, consistent with standards of care, and in accordance with representations made about their processes. We are skeptical of systems of accountability that involve criminal or civil penalties imposed upon gamete donors or criminal penalties imposed upon medical professionals who provide assisted reproductive services.
    
    
12. We are committed to pursuing a research agenda about the family formation and childrearing desires of a diverse LGBTQ population to develop a policy agenda that is informed, whenever possible, by data rather than anecdotes or assumptions.

Policy Positions

Parentage:

1. We support comprehensive legal protections for parent-child relationships, including in LGBTQ families and other families formed through assisted reproduction.
   
   
2. We oppose laws that condition parental recognition in families formed through assisted reproduction on the participation of medical or healthcare professionals.
   
   
3. Because birth certificates do, and should, record legal parentage, we oppose laws or regulations requiring birth certificates to record gamete donors for children conceived with donor gametes or to record the fact that a child was donor conceived. 

Identity Disclosure:

1. We oppose government-imposed legal requirements regarding the disclosure of identifying information unless they are limited to disclosure at or after age 18 and accompanied by comprehensive parentage protections for nonbiological/nongenetic parent-child relationships.
   
   
2. We oppose laws mandating contact between gamete donors and persons conceived with their gametes.

Disclosure in Families:

1. We support professional guidelines encouraging practitioners to discuss with their clients and patients the importance of age-appropriate parental disclosure of donor conception to children. 

Family Limits & Registries:

1. We oppose the creation of a government-run registry for identifying donors,  donor-conceived persons, or their families, whether international, federal, state, or local.
   
   
2. We oppose legally mandated family limits.

Health Information & Accountability:

1. We support state adoption of laws requiring the disclosure of available medical history without personally identifying information, such as Article 9 of the UPA of 2017 as originally drafted.
   
   
2. We support enforcement of consumer protection laws regarding representations made by gamete banks with respect to the steps they take to acquire health information about gamete donors and any resulting children and the steps they take to ensure access to de-identified information.
   
   
3. We support professional guidelines that encourage banks to inform gamete donors and intended parents of the processes involved in collecting information about gamete donors, the handling and distribution of gametes, and the limitations of agreements regarding identity disclosure.
   
   
4. We oppose legal requirements that gamete banks obtain information about a gamete donor’s or prospective gamete donor’s criminal records or educational background.
   
   
5. We oppose legal requirements that gamete banks undertake individual-specific genetic screening of gamete donors or prospective gamete donors. 
   
   
6. We oppose legal requirements that gamete banks verify health, educational background, or criminal background information they receive from prospective gamete donors or gamete donors. 
   
   
7. We oppose civil liability or criminal penalties against gamete donors and clinicians for good faith representations made in the collection of gametes.