If you attended a South Australian assisted reproductive treatment (ART) clinic for a donor conception treatment which resulted in the birth of your child, learn about South Australia’s Donor Conception Register (DCR), the law changes and what information you may access.
- 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).
Welcome
Knowing one’s genetic heritage has many health and wellbeing benefits and can be lifechanging. It’s also the fundamental human right of every person, regardless of how or when they were conceived.
The Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988 and associated Regulations (donor conception law) changed in South Australia on 26 February 2025 to create a publicly accessible DCR.
The DCR provides a safe and supported environment designed to balance a donor-conceived person’s right to know their genetic heritage with a donor’s privacy.
How the DCR works
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 dating back to the 1970s (where available) 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.
To learn more visit: About the DCR.
Your connections
As a parent of a donor-conceived child aged under 18, your DCR connections will include:
- your donor(s)
- adult donor-conceived siblings (aged 18 years and over) of your child
- parents of your child’s donor-conceived siblings (aged under 18 years).
When your child turns 18, they may register to use the DCR themselves and can update their information. Your access to information about your donor(s) and any of your child’s donor-conceived siblings will be restricted at that time.
Your donor(s) name and date of birth will be made available to your child in the DCR once they turn 18 years of age, as well as any personal biographical and medical information added into the DCR by your donor(s).
To learn more download:
- 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).
Accessing information
The rules about access to information on the DCR are outlined in the changed South Australian donor conception laws (i.e. the ART Regulations).
With your consent, your DCR connections can access your contact details.
If your donor-conceived child is under 18 years of age, you may access basic information about your donor(s) and your child’s donor-conceived siblings, and any personal or medical information they have chosen to add to the DCR – to share with your child. Your connections may also consent in the DCR to share their name and contact details with you.
Donor-conceived siblings are only included in the DCR if the donor conception treatment occurred in South Australia and the birth of the child born as a result of the treatment is registered in South Australia.
To learn more download:
- DCR Access Matrix 3 – for the parent(s) of donor-conceived people (PDF 273KB)
- DCR Access Matrix 4 – for the parent(s) of a donor-conceived adult (PDF 222KB)
- Privacy protections.
Treatments before September 2004
If you received donor conception treatment before September 2004 you may have been advised not to tell your child (or children) the truth of their conception. Donors were guaranteed lifelong anonymity and it could not have been anticipated that this would change in the future, so a culture of secrecy surrounded donor conception.
Over the decades, studies have shown that keeping this information from a donor-conceived person can impact their mental health and wellbeing. With commercial DNA testing, many adults are now discovering they are donor-conceived and can often identity their parent’s donor(s) through these tests, removing all chance of anonymity for donors.
The law changes in South Australia have retrospectively removed the anonymity around donor conception and apply to historical information before September 2004.
While historical information has been added to the DCR (where it is available), gaps do however exist, where information has not been found. This means that for some DCR users, the DCR will not contain the information they hoped to find.
DCR administrators may add missing historical information to the DCR if it becomes available and is able to be verified.
To learn more visit:
Treatments after September 2004
If you received donor conception treatment in South Australia after September 2004, your donor(s) consented at the time of their donation for their identifying information to be made available to any child born as a result of your treatment, once that child turns 18 years of age and seeks this information.
Talking with your child
If you are the parent of a donor-conceived child, it is strongly encouraged to start conversations with your child about their conception origins as early as possible.
Conversations no matter your child’s age may be difficult and may cause distress if they are unaware they are donor-conceived. But there is help available.
If you are unsure how to have these conversations, Parenting SA is a Government of South Australia program, which has been providing quality information on raising children since 1996. Their website contains a range of Parent Easy Guides including Donor Conception: telling your child.
To download a copy of the Guide and to find out more visit Parenting SA. To learn more visit the helpful links and resources webpage.
Access in limited circumstances
Access to certain information held in the DCR may be granted under special conditions to:
- a donor-conceived child aged under 18
- a legal guardian of a donor-conceived person in their care (whose parent received donor conception treatment in South Australia).
To learn more visit Applications to access DCR information.
Private arrangements
The Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988 does not apply to private donor conception treatment arrangements.
If you disclosed on your child’s birth registration statement that they were donor-conceived through a private arrangement, and this information was verified by BDM, then your details and the details of your donor(s) will be included in the DCR.
It is therefore recommended that as a DCR participant you register to access the DCR to update information about yourself and set your contact preferences.
There is no way for the DCR to include information about private arrangements unless details of the arrangement were disclosed in the birth registration statement and the information verified by BDM.
Surrogacy agreements
Information about legal surrogacy agreements is included in the DCR where donated human reproductive material is used (gametes or embryos) in the treatment.
Interstate treatments and birth registrations
Records about donor conception treatments and birth registrations are held by the state or territory where the treatment was conducted or a birth is registered.
The DCR may not contain information if:
- the donor conception treatment that resulted in the conception of your child was conducted outside of South Australia, even when the gametes or embryos used in the treatment were originally donated in South Australia, and / or
- the birth of your donor-conceived child was registered outside of South Australia.
If this is you, contact the ART clinic where your donor conception treatment was conducted for assistance.
To learn more visit Helpful links and resources webpage.
Birth certificates
If your donor-conceived child was born on or after the law changes on 26 February 2025, their donor-conceived status is automatically noted on their birth certificate.
Donor-conceived adults may request an updated birth certificate from BDM. In some circumstances the donor(s) name may be included on a donor-conceived person’s birth certificate where requested.
To learn more visit:
- Consumer and Business Services: Births, Deaths and Marriages
- Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996.
Access the DCR
To register as a DCR user now, visit Access the South Australian Donor Conception Register.