Access the South Australian Donor Conception Register

The Government of South Australia has changed assisted reproductive treatment (ART) laws so that donor-conceived people aged 18 and over can access important information on the DCR (where available) about their parent’s donor(s) and other genetic links.

This ART law change (which includes donor conception laws) followed extensive public consultation and significant public support, to better support the health and wellbeing of donor-conceived people. 

• 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).

The DCR is a secure online portal for DCR participants and DCR users. Applications to request access to certain DCR information in limited circumstances may be possible.

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 is not searchable. Your connections are automatically linked to you in the DCR with access provided to your connection’s information in accordance with the law.  

The DCR does not offer DNA testing.

The DCR contains previously anonymous historical information sourced from ART records where the records and information are available and have been officially verified.

Gaps do however exist in these historical records, where information has not been found. This means that for some DCR users, the DCR will not contain the information they hoped to find.

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

To learn more visit:

• Donor conception records and the law
• About the DCR.

Anyone can register to access the DCR.  Information will however only be available to you if you are a DCR participant who can register, which includes people who are:

• donor-conceived and aged 18 years or older and were conceived as a result of a donor conception treatment in South Australia
• a donor who has ever donated sperm or eggs (i.e. gametes) or embryos for donor conception treatment in South Australia
• the parent(s) of a donor-conceived person where the donor conception treatment in South Australia resulted in the birth of their child.

This includes private donor conception arrangements where the donor(s) was (are) 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.

To learn more about who can register and what information they can access, download:

• DCR Access Matrix 1 – for donors (PDF 234KB)
• DCR Access Matrix 2 – for donor-conceived people (PDF 238KB)
• DCR Access Matrix 3 – for the parent(s) of a donor-conceived child (PDF 273KB)
• DCR Access Matrix 4 – for the parent(s) of a donor-conceived adult (PDF 222KB).

Upon request, access to information held in the DCR may be granted in certain other limited circumstances if you are:

• donor-conceived and under 18 years of age, if your parent(s) received the donor conception treatment in South Australia that resulted in your birth
• a direct descendant of a donor-conceived person who was born as the result of donor conception treatment in South Australia but has since died
• a legal guardian of a donor-conceived person who was born as the result of donor conception treatment in South Australia.

If you are donor-conceived and under 18 years of age, to learn more visit Privacy protections.

To request access in these limited circumstances, visit Applications to access DCR information.

Where donor sperm, eggs or embryos were transferred between Australian states and territories – the DCR may not have access to the treatment records or to the identity of donor-conceived people whose birth was registered outside of South Australia – even if they are related to a DCR participant and DCR user.

To learn more visit Frequently asked questions.

DCR users can set their own contact preferences and choose to add and share information about themselves in the DCR. Information added by DCR users is reviewed by the DCR administrators before being made accessible to your connections in the DCR. Your connections may have different contact preferences to you, so access to information doesn’t guarantee personal contact.

To learn more visit Privacy protections.

If you donated or were conceived by donor conception prior to September 2004, the law changes and what these mean for you may cause you to experience a range of emotions.

There may be aspects of the law changes or using the DCR which leave you feeling like you need some support. You may need support as the result of:

• information you have found as a DCR user
• missing retrospective historic information that you had hoped to find on the DCR
• information about you being disclosed to your connections.

To learn more, visit the webpages that best describe you:

• I am donor-conceived and I was conceived before September 2004
• I am a donor and I donated before September 2004.

ART clinics are required to provide certain donor conception information to people linked to a donor conception treatment, if the treatment occurred at their clinic.

Donor-conceived people, the parent(s) of donor-conceived children and donors may contact the ART clinic they are linked to for assistance and support.