Professors María Pastor and Rosana Machín, principal investigators of the project.

The Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) and the Tordesillas Doctoral School of Public Health and History of Science, both members of the Tordesillas Group, are conducting the “Anonymity Between the Provider and Recipient of Gametes in Assisted Reproduction: Connections between Brazil and Spain” project. This project, in which the Vice Rectorate for International Relations is collaborating, focuses, from a sociological viewpoint, upon the anonymity of donors and recipients of ova and sperm (collectively, these are called gametes) within the Valencian Community and the Brazilian state of São Paulo.

This research is led by Rosana Machín, a sociologist from the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of São Paulo, and María Pastor, the UMH International Doctorate Director and coordinator of the Tordesillas Doctoral School of Public Health and History of Science. During the two years that the study will last, it will compare assisted reproduction cycles and examine current legislation on maintaining the anonymity of gamete donors in Spain and Brazil. Spanish and Brazilian investigators comprised of university experts and specialists from the public and private sectors will join the current team with the aim of learning about their positions on maintaining anonymity in the use of third-party genetic material.

Legislation

The issue regarding disclosure of the names of parents to children born through assisted reproduction has always been at the center of international debate. In Brazil and Spain alike, anonymity about donor identity is in force. One of the reasons given for withdrawing such anonymity concerns the rights of such children to learn of their biogenetic origins as something important for their identity.

Currently, the Spanish Bioethics Committee expressed its interest in reviewing the current model of anonymity present in donations of ova and sperm. In February 2019, the European Parliament issued a document that recommended abolishing anonymity for member countries of the European Community. According to investigator María Pastor, the main objective of their upcoming research lies in learning of the opinion and perception gamete donors have about this law, because “it will affect them for the rest of their lives and those of their offspring,” she says.

Likewise, Australia, Holland, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, in the first place, have already adhered to the European Parliament recommendations. However, the Spanish Fertility Society recommends anonymity of gamete donations. María Pastor explains that “neither these European countries nor the Spanish Bioethics Committee have compiled information from the affected population–in this case, gamete donors and recipients. We wonder what the entire population that might be affected by a change in this law is thinking.”

Relations between Spain and Brazil

In Brazil, ova and sperm donations are altruistic and anonymous, which has resulted in these gametes being exported from Spain. From a demographic point of view, the context of assisted reproduction has advanced in the past 40 years. For Rosana Machín, there are not enough donors due to its altruistic donor nature, and this has led to imports entering from other countries to meet the needs of people who seek assisted reproduction and considering it safe trade between countries.

In Brazil, the fact that gametes are donated anonymously allows for shielding donor identities. “It represents an act to help another person have children; they don’t contemplate becoming parents at a future time. Then, this gesture is justified because there is already a commercial relationship existing between Brazil and Spain,” states Rosana Machín. María Pastor thinks that it has not been taken into account that “Spain and Brazil are united by the same reality regarding the anonymity of donations.”

Parallel to the legal situation regarding anonymity, completed research shows that heterosexual couples have been more resistant to speak of the use of assisted reproduction by donors, whereas homosexual couples and single people are more willing to speak with children born via assisted reproduction. In some countries, they are a significant group applying pressure in favor of losing the anonymity, explains Rosana Machín.