[Sociable]

Interesting question this whole nature/nurture debate?

Before I begin I must declare a †œpersonalÃÂà ‚¢ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã‚ƚÂÂ� interest as, at a guess, I am not alone in this forum having both a natural and adoptive father.

I owe much of who I am today to both my upbringing and to my genetic inheritance both of which have played a part but in different ways.

As I grew up I only ever knew my adoptive father and in fact it was only in my teenage years I began to even become fully aware that I was adopted. My mum had separated from her first husband a few months before I was born and remarried a few years later.

It was to be a further 20 years when i was 35 before I finally just had to answer some of those questions that had bubbled below the surface for so many years about that part of me that clearly did not come from my "Dad".

Having been in that position of needing those questions answered (and not just the medical ones) I for one can 100% confirm I would have been lost without the opportunity to at least try to answer them by getting to know my natural father.

For this reason above all others I fully support this change which puts the child first, albeit that they will not be given access to the information until they themselves are adults. Many may not even bother to follow up on the information but none should be denied the right to at least have that option.

My question is what will now become of all those other children already born via donor eggs and sperm in the period since this first became available and now?

I feel for the many that will, over time, come to ask the same questions I had asked only to be denied answers because of such a lack of forethought by the people framing the original laws allowing anonymity which are now thankfully being revised.

So what of the donors? Well anyone donating does so clearly in the knowledge that a possible, and even desired result of that donation, is the creation of a human life to which they are undeniably forever linked.

Last but not least, we have to also consider the "nurturing" parents. And here is, I suspect, the real reason some fear this new way of dealing with the longer term consequences of donor eggs and sperm could be problematic.

The fear is natural, that any seeking out of the "genetic" parent(s) will disrupt the new family, even if this happens many years later. I do not deny this can be a worrying time, but they really do not have anything to fear, as the reality is that such a search does not change the relationship with their child, and if anything usually strengthens the bonds which already exist.

The old maxim still holds true †œHonesty is always the best policyââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ÂÂ�.

The notion that your personal genetic history and heritage can be known to some faceless bureaucrat but denied to you as an individual defies any legal, moral or ethical justification.

Bit more than 2 cents worth but sorry I feel rather strongly on this issue.