from Part II - Privacy in the Age of Consumer Genetics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 August 2021
Although the United States has long had a history of allowing anonymous gamete donation, that “anonymity” does not actually exist, given the increasingly widespread use of DTC genetic testing. Over 15 million people have undergone DTC autosomal genetic tests, and. recent studies show that a genetic database covering only two percent of the population could match nearly anyone in that population, especially if they are of European-descent. In the US, assisted reproduction is accessed overwhelmingly by those of European-descent. Thus, a legal regime that allows “anonymous” donation is misleading those involved with donor gametes. Although there are passionate debates about the need to preserve anonymity to ensure that there are enough sperm and egg donors available for those who seek assisted reproduction, those arguments are moot due to the state of DTC testing and the language of “anonymous” donation misleads all of the parties involved with donor conception. Clinics are able to claim this in order to ensure a steady supply of gamete donors. This chapter addresses the legal and ethical quandaries that the facade of anonymous donation creates and suggests how to best resolve these issues with both public law and private governance strategies.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.