Frequently Asked Questions

• DCR administrators: Authorised staff in SA Health, South Australian ART clinics and the Donor Conception Register Support Service (DCRSS) who maintain the DCR.
• DCR participants: People who can register to be a DCR user, but who have not yet done so.
• DCR users: DCR participants who have registered to access information held in the DCR about other DCR participants and DCR users linked to themselves (i.e. their connections).
• Parent’s donor(s): The donor (or two donors) linked to a parent’s donor conception treatment. This includes egg and sperm (i.e. gametes) donors.
• Retrospective or historical information: Information from donor conception treatments during or before September 2004.
• Your connections: DCR participants and DCR users who are either linked to the same donor (e.g. donor-conceived siblings) or are linked to the same donor conception treatment (e.g. a parent, donor and donor-conceived person).

Donor conception is one type of assisted reproductive treatment. Donor conception uses sperm or eggs (i.e. gametes) or embryos which have been donated from a person who is not intended to be the parent of any child conceived as a result of the donor conception treatment.  

Other reproductive treatments are assisted insemination and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and these are not included within the DCR.

Donor conception involves people who:

• donate either sperm or eggs (i.e. gametes) or embryos (i.e. the donor)
• receive the donation(s) that results in the birth of a child (i.e. the  parent(s) of the child born)
• are born as a result of the donation (i.e. a donor-conceived person).

The Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988 (the ART Act) and the ART Regulations changed on 26 February 2025.

The Births Deaths and Marriages Act 1996 changed on 26 February 2025.

In South Australia, donor conception law (the ART Act) was changed to better support the health and wellbeing of donor-conceived people by:

• removing the guaranteed anonymity of people who donated sperm or eggs (i.e. gametes) or embryos before September 2004
• ensuring donor-conceived people over 18 years of age can seek identifying information about their genetic heritage (i.e. their parent’s donor(s)) and also find other information about any genetically related donor-conceived siblings
• allowing genetic relatives to share important medical and genetic information if they choose
• allowing donors to seek non-identifying information about any person born because of their donation where the donor-conceived person has agreed.

In September 2004 the National Health and Medical Research Council Ethical guidelines on the use of assisted reproductive technology in clinical practice and research were updated to remove the Australian requirement for lifelong donor anonymity.

Since that time, ART providers have required donors to consent to their identifying information being made available to any donor-conceived person born as a result of their donation once that donor-conceived person reaches the age of 18.  

Up until 2010, ART providers were required to keep identifying information about a donor in a different location to other information about the donor, resulting in some records being incomplete.

This requirement was removed in 2010 and all donor conception records made since that time must ensure information about the people involved in a donor conception treatment is recorded and available to the recipient parent, the donor(s) and any person born as a result of the treatment.

People who can access the DCR include:

• donor-conceived people aged 18 years or older who were conceived as a result of a donor conception treatment in South Australia
• donors of sperm or eggs (i.e. gametes) or embryos used in a donor conception treatment in South Australia
• the parent(s) of a donor-conceived person where the donor conception treatment was conducted in a South Australian assisted reproductive treatment (ART) clinic, and resulted in the birth of their child.

This includes private donor conception arrangements where the donor was recorded on the birth registration statement submitted to and verified by the South Australian Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) registration office. 

Information about legal surrogacy agreements is also included in the DCR where donated human reproductive material is used (gametes or embryos) in the treatment.

Donor information from the DCR has the potential to be life-changing for donor-conceived people and their direct descendants.

It is now recognised worldwide that a lack of genetic heritage information can have a lasting impact on a person’s health and wellbeing.

Having knowledge of one’s heritage and biological links helps people to:

• build their self-esteem and self-identity
• access key medical information
• take early steps to minimise or prevent disease linked to genetic conditions
• benefit from informed family planning

• prevent unknowingly engaging in an intimate relationship with a genetic relative or with someone who has a common ancestor (i.e. a consanguineous relationship).

The DCR uses information from South Australian ART records to automatically connect the people who are linked to a donor conception treatment that resulted in the birth of a child. People linked are referred to as connections.

It helps donor-conceived people and donors to learn more about each other and supports those connections. Parents can also access information about their donor-conceived child’s connections.

People may want to connect for a range of reasons, including finding out more about medical history, personality, appearance, hobbies, and interests.

ART providers in South Australia are required to add basic information about donors, recipient parents, and donor-conceived people to the DCR. This includes name, date of birth, biological sex at birth, place of birth, address, email address, phone number, and an identity document for identity verification.  

The DCR also captures information confirming when a person is born as a result of donor-conception.

South Australia’s DCR is the first of its kind in Australia to be publicly accessible online and updated with real-time information.  

Use of the DCR in South Australia is free and offers a safe and supported online space that offers personal privacy according to an individual’s chosen contact preference.

In contrast, many genealogy and family history services hold a database of registered users, and a person pays a fee to register to achieve a potential genetic match. Consent is an issue for those people who have not registered to be matched through the service but are identified through the process. The impact on those people and those who discover unexpected information about their close genetic relationships could potentially be significant.

No. The DCR uses information from South Australian ART records to connect people who are linked to a donor conception treatment in our state, that resulted in the birth of a child.

The DCR does not offer DNA testing.

Part 2A of the Family Relationships Act 1975 states that donors are not legal parents under the law. Donors have no parental rights. Donors are not liable to pay child support. Donor-conceived people are not eligible to contest the will of their parent’s donor.

To access the DCR, verify your identity using a digital ID. The DCR uses Digital IDs, such as myID, provided via the Australian Government’s online Digital ID System.

Visit this link to learn more about verifying your identity to Register to access the DCR.

If you cannot set up a Digital ID, visit Applications to access DCR information.

If information relating to retrospective historical treatment is located and verified, then this may be added to the DCR.

To learn more visit the webpage in this DCR resource library that best describes you:

• I am donor-conceived
• I am a donor
• I am a parent of a donor-conceived person.

Medical records are not added into the DCR.

A DCR user can elect to self-report their medical history on the DCR, which will be visible to their connections.

The operation of the DCR complies with all Australian laws in relation to privacy including for the collection of personal information.

All DCR participants must verify their identity before access to the DCR is provided.

All DCR users:

• must read the DCR terms and conditions, which outline the legal framework for the use of the DCR
• are required to acknowledge they understand the terms and conditions information before using the DCR
• must set their personal disclosure preferences (where applicable) and notification settings
• have control over which DCR connection types can contact them, by setting contact preferences
• can choose to add personal biographical and medical information to the DCR.

The following preference settings available below may be changed at any stage:

• no contact (default setting for all DCR users) – contact details are not disclosed
• undecided – contact details are not disclosed
• open to contact – your choice of email or phone number is made available.

If you change your preference from ‘open to contact’ back to ‘undecided’ or ‘no contact’, be aware that some of your connections may have already accessed your contact information and may still contact you.

If you have ever changed your name or you change your name in the future, this may affect the DCR’s ability to link you to your information and your connections.

You can provide information about your official name change(s) in the DCR. If the change is verified by the South Australian Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) registration office, your former and any future name changes will be linked to your information in the DCR.

When you access the DCR for the first time you must set your contact preferences to let your DCR connections know if you are open to contact or not.

The ART Act does not make it an offence to control or limit people making contact with each other.

Before 1988 there were no donor conception laws in Australia and no legal requirement for record-keeping relating to donor conception treatments. In addition, until 2010, ART clinics were required to keep identifying information about a donor in a different location to other information about the donor.

For these reasons, it is unlikely that all records used to create the DCR will be full and complete, and it is expected that information gaps will remain, particularly for older historical records from the 1970s which were unable to be located.

Unfortunately, the DCR may not answer all of the questions that donor-conceived people may have about their parent’s donor(s).

As the DCR operates in real-time, DCR administrators may add missing historical information to the DCR if it becomes available and is able to be verified in the future.

You can choose to be automatically notified by the DCR when your information is accessed or when one of your connections updates their information.  

You must be aged 18 years or older to access the DCR.

If you are a donor-conceived person aged under 18 and were conceived as a result of a donor conception treatment in South Australia, your parent(s) can register to access information about your connections in the DCR.

Only in certain circumstances would a person under the age of 18 be given access to information contained in the DCR.

For more information, visit Applications to access DCR information.

To find out more visit Privacy Protections.

No. After you verify your identity, you will be automatically linked to the donor conception treatment (where the information exists) that led to your conception. Your parent(s) and their donor(s) will be linked to the same treatment.  

If you have reason to think you might be donor-conceived, you should first speak with your parent(s) about this. If it’s not possible to speak to your parent(s), you could try asking other family members.

If you are over the age of 18 years, you can register to access the DCR, however information will only be available to you if the DCR has information about a donor conception treatment that you are connected to. If you were conceived prior to September 2004 and are donor-conceived, the DCR may not contain information about you due to record-keeping practices of the time.

For more information, visit Applications to access DCR information.

No, you are not eligible to directly use the DCR but you may apply to access information held in the DCR under certain circumstances.

For example, direct descendants of a deceased donor-conceived person can apply to access information in the DCR about the deceased person’s connections.

For more information, visit Applications to access DCR information.

If you have ever donated sperm or eggs (i.e. gametes) or embryos for a South Australian assisted reproductive treatment which resulted in the birth of a child, your details will be available on the DCR. Some older historical treatment information may be missing.

If you are a non-Australian resident and live overseas, and your donation was sourced by a South Australian ART provider, you may be unable to complete the identity verification procedure using a Digital ID. In both cases, it is important for your details and contact preferences to be updated.

If you are unable to verify your identity using Digital ID, visit Applications to access DCR information.

South Australian donor conception laws changed on 26 February 2025 to provide donor-conceived people with the right to access information about their genetic heritage retrospectively, removing the anonymity of people who donated gametes or embryos prior to September 2004.

Before that time, clinical records were not made and recorded in the careful way they are today, and as a result some of the records and details will be missing or incomplete.

By registering to use the DCR, or by accessing the DCR Support Service (DCRSS), you may be able to fill in some of the missing pieces of information and give a donor-conceived person the information about their genetic heritage that they’ve been searching for.

To find out more visit I am a donor and I donated gametes before September 2004.

If your donor-conceived child is aged under 18 years, you can consent in the DCR to exchange contact details with the parent(s) of your child’s donor-conceived siblings while they are also aged under 18 years.

If you are a parent or legal guardian, it is strongly encouraged to start conversations with your child / the child in your care, about the truth about their conception origins at the earliest opportunity.

If you are a parent and are unsure how to start talking with your child about their donor-conceived origins, your ART clinic may be able to assist.

For more information visit Helpful links and resources.

Legal guardian details are not added into the DCR. If you are the legal guardian of a donor or donor-conceived person but you were not involved in the donor conception treatment and you want to access information contained in the DCR about them, you may apply to access information held in the DCR under certain circumstances.

To request access, visit Applications to access DCR information.