Disclosure to children conceived with donor gametes should not be optional

The use of donor gametes in reproductive technology raises ethical, psychol ogical and social questions that have been significant for the practice of adoption: that is, when, or if, to disclose biological origin to the child. The current wisdom is that adopted children should be told by their parent s as early as possible that the family was created through adoption, and we argue that the same model should apply to the use of donor gametes. We arg ue that privacy concerns or other goals of parents who would prefer to avoi d disclosure are outweighed by the negative consequences of holding such fa mily secrets and by the child's right to, and medical need for, information about his/her origin. We believe fertility programmes and professional org anizations ought to strongly encourage those using donor gametes to tell th eir child of their true origin as early as the child can understand reprodu ction in general.