The Donation of Gametes and the Anonimity of the Donors

A study of the public opinion in Bulgaria in regard to the possibility of the adult children, created by gamete donation, to learn who their biological parents are was made. This investigation was an on-line survey. The participants in the study are individuals between 18 and 65 years of age - Internet users. The survey was included into different web sites and this enlarged the number of respondents (up to 994) and 85% of them were persons in fertile age - from 18 to 43 years. The answers of the respondents in relation of the demographic features - gender, age, education, family status and place of living were studied. The data were calculated with the special statistical product SPSS 16. A critical level of significance 0.05 was used. Results: Almost half (47%) of the respondents agree that the children born from gamete donors have the right to know at adulthood their biological parents, 35% disagree and 18% have no opinion. The demographic features influencing the answers of the question are the gender, the education and the family status of the respondents (p < 0.05). Most of the men (60%) consider that the children have the right to know their biological parents while only 44% of the women approve. The highest support of the idea about contact between the donors and their genetic off springs show the people with secondary education (56%) and the most skeptical are the respondents with high non-medical education (40%). The family status influences the opinion of the respondents - the approval of the married and unmarried is 38% and 60%, respectively.