Inside STAT: Sperm banks are forced to reconsider long-held promises to donors

(MOLLY FERGUSON FOR STAT)

At the nation’s sperm clinics, donor anonymity is increasingly dead, thanks in large part to the growing popularity of consumer genetic tests that allow customers to more easily connect with relatives they never knew they had — including those who never intended to be found in the first place. As a result, sperm donation clinics are being forced to confront the fact that their long-held promises of anonymity are no longer a foregone conclusion, STAT’s Meghana Keshavan reports. Instead, many are stressing that they are only guaranteeing that they won’t be the ones to share any data — or are creating ways to connect donors with offspring at age 18, if both parties agree. Read more here.