Ken Daniels is Adjunct Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has worked in the field of assisted human reproduction for 35 years undertaking counselling, research and policy development. He has published over 140 papers and chapters in books. He is the author of the widely used book designed for parents and professionals, ‘Building a Family with the Assistance of Donor Insemination’.

Advice for those starting the donor linking process from those who have been there.

We spoke to donor-conceived people, parents and donors who have accessed VARTA Donor Conception Register Services to ask them whether there was something they wished they had known beforehand. This is what they said.

Twenty years after donating sperm at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne, Carl* learnt that he had two donor daughters.

The news came as a surprise. Years earlier Carl had been informed that no children had been born from his donation. But the revised information, delivered in 2006, revealed that two girls were born in the late 1980s at another clinic, which had used sperm donated at the Queen Victoria.

VARTA Donor Registers Service Manager, Kate Bourne explains the process of donor linking and how VARTA can assist in this process.