September 17, 2013

Thanks Olivia! The End of Anonymous Sperm Donation in British Columbia

While this blog was sleeping, on May 19, 2011, the ground shook in British Columbia. Not literally, though there is a risk of earthquakes there. This time the earthquake came in the form of a judgement by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, striking down the provincial legislation that had protected donor anonymity.

The lawsuit had been brought by Olivia Pratten, about whom I have written here before - a young Canadian woman who had long sought in vain to find her anonymous sperm donor father. Olivia went to NYU and got a law degree, and she came back to Canada with the torch ablaze, ready to torch our antiquated laws through her luminous lawsuit. Thankfully the judge heard and listened, and agreed. Here is the wonderful, detailed verdict.

The verdict lists mounds of research, expert testimony and personal stories, all of which build a very convincing case against anonymous donor conception. To any person who is considering anonymous donor conception to build their family: please read the verdict above and consider the evidence!

In fact, if you read between the lines, this verdict makes a very convincing case for ending donor conception altogether.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sadly -

Sperm Donor Case Won't Be Heard By Supreme Court
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/30/olivia-pratten-sperm-case-supreme-court_n_3359567.html


"The B.C. Supreme Court agreed with her, concluding anonymous sperm donation "is harmful to the child" and striking down sections of the province's Adoption Act as unconstitutional. The judge in the case also ordered a permanent injunction against the destruction of donor records.

But the victory was short-lived.

Last fall, the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned the lower court's decision, ruling there is no constitutional right to know the identity of one's parents.

Pratten asked the Supreme Court of Canada to intervene, but on Thursday, the high court said it would not hear the case. As usual, the court did not provide its reasons for refusing to hear the appeal."

Veronica Thomas said...

Thanks for that clarification, Anonymous. I really appreciate it. I tried to look up news stories about this decision to see what became of it but I didn't see anything about this unfortunate denouement.

As a Canadian all I can say is that I am disgusted by the government and the court system for allowing the travesty of anonymous third party donation to continue.

Not a constitutional right, is it? One day it will surely be recognized as such, and many of our leaders will hopefully be red with shame for allowing it to continue for so long.