Single mothers who have created their families using donor sperm know that donor linking brings with it a multitude of potential issues and considerations. Now, the Victorian Government has announced that the authority that supports families through the process will be dissolved – and donor recipient mums are having none of it.
Currently, specialised counselling is a legal requirement for families seeking donor linking, and it is performed by the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA). VARTA counsellors provide expert counselling and advice to mothers who wish to meet their children’s donor or diblings (donor siblings).
There are a lot of things to consider when meeting your child’s donor. What are your expectations? Is your child ready? How will you talk to child about a situation where their donor does not want to meet them? How will the relationships be managed?
Without VARTA’s expert advice, things can go wrong very quickly. Some mums have connected with their donor only to find that their boundaries differ; given that some donors may have donated under the promise of anonymity, some may be hostile or anxious now that changed laws have removed that anonymity.
Now, under a new Government proposal, VARTA will be disbanded by the end of the year when regulation for IVF and a range of other health matters — including tobacco, food safety and pest control — fall under the remit of the Health Department.
Counselling, according to the Government, will be “replaced with a requirement that the Donor Conception Registrar provide prescribed information to the person which will cover matters currently required to be covered during mandated counselling.”
Donor recipient mothers are campaigning to save VARTA, saying that counselling support required by their families go well beyond the dispensing of “prescribed information”.
Cal Volks, a former donor-linking counsellor at VARTA, told the ABC that “a sophisticated model of mandatory expert counselling” is required to support donor recipient families.
But wait, there’s more
The proposed reforms also remove the legislated requirement to provide public education and promote research about IVF and donor conception.
For donor recipient families, this represents decades of work to normalise their family type, down the drain, taking with it any security that might come from knowing that society is becoming more aware and educated.
What you can do
If your family has benefited from VARTA, particularly its specialised counselling service, please email the Health Department’s Legislative and Regulatory Reform Team at legandregreform@health.vic.gov.au. Share your experiences and urge them to reconsider disbanding VARTA.
