Donor Sibling Registry

The Donor Sibling Registry is a website and non-profit US organization serving donor offspring, sperm donors, egg donors and other donor conceived people. It was founded in September, 2000 by a mother and son team, Wendy Kramer and Ryan Kramer of Nederland, Colorado. As of November, 2007, the site is home to more than 15,500 donors, parents and donor conceived^[1].

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Purpose & Goals

The "DSR" was developed as a means of connecting people born through donor insemination. It is based on the idea that when a child is born through donor insemination, they are given a "donor number" corresponding to the person they anonymously received a sperm or egg donation from. Because a donor can donate multiple times, often two or more children are created from the same donor. When multiple user sign up with the same donor, a "match" is created. Most commonly, matches are made between half-siblings of sperm donation, however there are numerous cases of donor-offspring matches as well.

History

The DSR began as a Yahoo! group, which was created in September 2000. It was started by Wendy Kramer and her then 10 year old son Ryan Kramer as a means of communicating with other offspring of artificial insemination. After the first year, the group was home to only 37 members.^[1] In October, 2002, Wendy created a press release which was sent to local news agencies. The story was picked up by Denver's NBC affiliate, KUSA-TV.^[2] Shortly after, a small article about the DSR was written for The Denver Post. This article led to national and international media coverage, giving the DSR enough exposure to grow its member base into the thousands. In October 2003, the DSR moved from a Yahoo group to it's own database website, www.donorsiblingregistry.com. With the help of continued media coverage, the DSR is home to more than 15,500 people (donors, parents and the donor conceived themselves) (as of November 2007). Although the DSR Yahoo! group no longer handles connections (this is done by the website itself), it still exists as a place for discussion. Additionally, a second group, DSR_Discussion^[3], specifically addresses discussion and debate relating to donor insemination.

Matches

When a donor conceived person, a parent of a donor conceived person or a sperm or egg donor signs up to the Donor Sibling Registry, they are automatically filed under their respective cryobank by their donor number. If only one person of a donor number is listed, the posting is white. When two or more people sign up under the same donor number, they are filed together as a "match". Matches can occur between half siblings (light yellow), sperm donors and their offspring (dark yellow), or egg donors and their offspring (also dark yellow). As of November, 2007, the total number people matched on the DSR is 4,050^[1]. The largest match between a donor and offspring is 26 half siblings to a single donor, who is also listed.

Media Appearances

The DSR has made numerous appearances on various local, national and international television, radio, newspaper and magazine segments including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The New York Times and many more^[2].

Research

In July 2007, the DSR in collaboration with Cambridge University completed phase 1 of the first large scale study on donor insemination^[4]. In December of 2007, the second phase, in which teenagers 13-17 will also be able to complete the questionnaire, was activated.

The research is intended to be a groundbreaking and pioneering investigation of what it means for people born of donor conception (as well as the donors themselves) to search for family members with whom they have had no previous contact. Nearly 1000 individuals have participated in the study so far.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} DSR Home Page
2. ^ ^{a b} A list of all DSR related media stories
3. ^ http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSR_Discussion/ DSR_Discussion Yahoo! Group
4. ^ ^{a b} http://www.donorsiblingregistry.com/research.php