State
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Legislation/Regulation/Guidelines
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Access to Identifying and
Non-Identifying Information
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Voluntary Register
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Western
Australia
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Human Reproductive Technology Act 1991 (WA)
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Compulsory Register:
Identifying Information
People
conceived after 2004 may access identifying information about their donor when
they turn 16 years of age.
People
conceived prior to 2004 may access non‑identifying information that is
held on the register (noting that information has only been held on the
central register since 1993). Many people will have to approach the clinic
involved in their conception and access to information will depend on clinic's
record keeping and policies.
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Voluntary Register: A
1999 report reviewing the Act considered that donor offspring should be able
to obtain information about their origins, including identifying information.
Consequently, a voluntary register exists to facilitate the exchange of
identifying information. Such information is entered on the Voluntary
Register if a person completes a properly signed and witnessed written
registration form. Access is based on the mutual consent between donors and
donor conceived individuals.
Related
donor conceived offspring may also have access to identifying information
about each other if they have all consented. This may be done without
identifying the donor.
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Victoria
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Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic)
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Mandatory Registers:
maintained by the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Date
of consent of the donor determines which register information is held on, and
therefore access to information:
1984 Central Register: Infertility
(Medical Procedures) Act 1984. Information that identifies any person may
only be released with the consent of the person about whom it relates.
1995 Central Register: Infertility
Treatment Act 1995 Donor consented from 1 January 1998 onwards.
Information that identifies the donor is available when donor conceived
person turns 18 years of age – subject to counselling requirements. The donor
conceived person must consent to information being released to the donor if
it is requested.
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Voluntary Registers: Voluntary
registers have been set up to enable information exchange by people
not governed by the legislation. There were two registers kept when
held by the former Infertility Treatment Authority:
*Post-1988
Voluntary Register
*Pre-1988
Voluntary Register
However,
Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages now only refers to 'the
Voluntary Register'.
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New
South Wales
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Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2007 (NSW)
Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation 2009 (NSW)
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From
1 January 2010, identifying information is held on a register maintained by
the NSW Department of Health. Individuals conceived after commencement may
access this information when they turn 18 years of age.
Those
conceived prior to 1 January 2010 need to contact the clinic in which they
were conceived for non-identifying information (if such records still exist).
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A
voluntary register is also to be maintained by the NSW Department of Health.
Information will only be disclosed in accordance with the consent of the
person who has entered information upon the register.
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South
Australia
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Reproductive Technology (Clinical Practices) Act
1988 (SA)
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South
Australian legislation and regulations require record keeping. While there is
no right to access identifying information, such access is possible if all
parties consent. However, there is no central register that holds this
information, and donor conceived individuals must contact the
clinic/hospital/surgery where they were conceived. Donor conceived individuals
may access non-identifying information when they reach the age of 16, but
again this is reliant on information actually being held by clinics.
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None
– the Act provides that the Minister may keep a register (these provisions
commenced on 1 September 2010).
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Queensland,
Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory
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National Health and Medical Research Council Ethical
Guidelines on the Use of Assisted Reproductive Technology in Clinical
Practice and Research (2007) and RTAC certification
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'6.1.1
Clinics should help potential gamete donors to understand and accept the
significance of the biological connection that they have with the persons
conceived using their gametes. Donors should be advised that the persons
conceived are entitled to knowledge of their genetic parents and siblings.
6.1.2
Clinics should help prospective recipients to understand the significant
biological connection that their children have with the gamete donor.
Recipients should be advised that their children are entitled to knowledge of
their genetic parents and siblings; they should therefore be encouraged to
tell their children about their origins.
6.1.3
Working with relevant professional organisations, clinics should use forums
for public information to encourage people who were donors before the
introduction of these guidelines, and those previously conceived using
donated gametes, to contact the clinic and register their consent to being
contacted by their genetic children or genetic siblings and half-siblings,
respectively.'
There
is however no evidence that the guidelines are implemented and no oversight
of clinics with respect to ensuring identifying information is made
available.
Donor
conceived individuals must contact the clinic to see if they hold any
information (non-identifying) and whether they will release that information.
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None
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