Donor conception treatments in South Australia are provided by assisted reproductive treatment (ART) clinics who are regulated (governed) by law. ART clinics are required to operate in line with national ethical guidelines.
- 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 treatment
Donor conception is the process of conceiving a baby using donated sperm or eggs (i.e. gametes) or embryos.
Access to donor conception treatment in South Australia is based on specific criteria and clinical need.
Donor(s) may be known or unknown to the parent(s) and only unpaid donation is allowed in South Australia.
The parent(s) of a donor-conceived child may also require two donors to conceive (i.e. both an egg and sperm donor).
To learn more visit the SA Health website:
- Eligibility for fertility services
- Assisted Reproductive Treatment Provider Register
- Disclaimer for Assisted Reproductive Treatment information.
Donations of sperm, eggs or embryos
South Australian ART clinics may use donated sperm, eggs or embryos from a person known to the intended parent(s) or from a donor within our state, across Australia, and from overseas – whose identity is known to the clinic but not to the intended parent(s).
South Australian ART clinics are governed and operate under our state’s donor conception laws: the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988 and Assisted Reproductive Treatment Regulations 2024.
All ART clinics across Australia are also required to comply with the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Ethical guidelines on the use of assisted reproductive technology in clinical practice and research (i.e. the NHMRC guidelines).
The NHMRC is an independent statutory agency responsible to the Australian Government Minister for Health and Ageing and operates under the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 (Cth).
In line with the NHMRC guidelines, an ART clinic can only use a donation (of an egg, sperm or embryo) in an ART (donor conception) treatment if a donor has provided formal consent for their identity to be made available to the donor-conceived person born as a result of their donation, upon reaching 18 years of age.
It is the responsibility of the ART clinic to ensure that donors have consented to their identity being made available. This was not always the case and prior to September 2004, donors were informed they would remain anonymous.
Legal parentage in South Australia
The Family Relationships Act 1975 is the law relating to parents which specifies that donors are not the legal parent of a child born as a result of their donation.
To learn more visit Donor conception records and the law.