The parent’s name(s) will appear on the birth certificate as the legal parent(s). The donor’s name will not appear on the birth certificate.
The Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages will also mark ‘donor-conceived’ against their record of the child’s birth.
When a birth certificate is issued to an adult donor-conceived person conceived from 2010, a second page is attached stating that more information about their birth is available.
If the donor-conceived person requests more information, they will be informed that their details are on the Central Register, managed by VARTA. If they did not know previously, they will then find out that they were donor-conceived.
The second page of the birth certificate can be removed so that it can be used for official purposes, such as applying for a passport, without revealing that they were donor-conceived.
Under the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic), recipients and donors have the right to information under certain conditions. Your clinic is required by law to keep specific information about:
- you and your partner (if you have one)
- the donor(s) of the eggs, sperm or embryos
- the child born as a result of the treatment.
The legislation also established donor conception registers to record details of sperm or egg donors, recipient parents and their children.