Donor-conceived individuals and access to information about their genetic origins: the relevance and role of rights.

Abstract

The discourse of rights has increasingly been used to frame debates about access to information for donor-conceived individuals. This article seeks to clarify the moral and legal basis upon which human rights are relevant to this issue. It outlines the elements of a substantive rights-based approach which is then used to resolve the competing rights of a donor and a donor-conceived individual. Three arguments are offered. First, donor anonymity must be prohibited prospectively and donor-conceived individuals must be entitled to information about their genetic parents. Secondly, a context-sensitive application of a human rights-based approach allows retrospective access to non-identifying inf..