Retrospective removal of donor anonymity: respectful, fair, grateful and moral? An evidence-based argument

The decision of the state Government of Victoria, Australia, to enable donor-conceived people to learn the identity of their donor regardless of their donor's consent (1) has generated divergent responses: Sonia Allan and Damian Adams welcomed the new legislation as an overdue triumph of the rights of donor-conceived people (in BioNews 841), while Guido Pennings has castigated it as 'disrespectful', 'unfair', 'ungrateful' and 'immoral' (in BioNews 843). Neither of these reactions is surprising, given these scholars' previous contributions to the debate on retrospective removal of donor anonymity (2,3).