Bending the law and crossing borders: An analysis of the ethical implications of choosing a sperm donor in Denmark

In recent years, Denmark has become a European destination for sperm donation. One reason is that the current regulation on both private sperm banking and donor insemination is liberal, compared to neighboring countries. The Danish legislation enables both single women, lesbians and heterosexual couples to use sperm donation. Although only anonymous sperm donation is legally allowed in Denmark, both sperm banks and private insemination clinics offers sperm from anonymous and non-anonymous donors. The reason of this practice is, that the law on assisted reproduction only applies to medical doctors.
In this presentation, I focus on how the fertility travellers seeking sperm donation in Denmark, and the employees at Danish fertility clinics, negotiate the ethical implications of choosing a sperm donor. I will in particular focus on how employees and fertility travellers engage in the question of anonymity, and the level of accessible information about the donor.
The presentation is based on an ethnographic fieldwork carried out at fertility clinics in Denmark. It includes observations from the clinics, and interviews with employees and the fertility travellers using sperm donation.