Queensland mum Shannon Ashton discovered her children had 43 siblings from the same donor sperm
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A mother of five who used donor sperm to have her children is concerned about ‘accidental incest’ after discovering that her children have at least 43 half-siblings.
Shannon Ashton and her partner first visited the Queensland Fertility Group for specialist help in 2002 after discovering she had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
The same-sex couple decided to use an anonymous sperm donor registered with the Queensland clinic to try to have a baby and a year later they were blessed with a boy named Zac.
The couple chose Donor 188, described as a “typical Aussie, sporty dude” in the database, and stuck with his sperm for their next four children, recently welcoming a girl in 2018.
Shannon Ashton (pictured) and her partner discovered their five children had 43 half-siblings after another couple revealed they’d used the same sperm donor
It wasn’t long before Ms. Ashton discovered that her children were not the only offspring of Donor 188 in Australia.
In 2004, when Zac was one year old, she enrolled the toddler at a friend’s daycare.
“Initially there were two slightly older boys at Karen’s Family Daycare,” Ms Ashton wrote on her My Rainbow Tribe blog.
“Karen was thrilled to share that some of her friends—another same-sex female couple—had taken care of their little girl. This little girl was about six months younger than Master Z (Zac) and was absolutely adorable.”
Ms. Ashton and her partner befriended the younger girl’s parents, and one quiet day, the two parents inadvertently realized their children were half-siblings after learning that they had used the same donor sperm.
Donor 188, a blond-haired, blue-eyed surfer who liked to watch ‘any sport’, was interested in ‘science and math’ and had no artistic or craft interests.
“It turned out that Karen knew some of the donor characteristics of this other couple,” Ms. Ashton said.
“I rattled a few things, and the look on her face made me think, ‘What? What?’ It turned out that we had both used Donor 188 within this nursery and that our children were in fact half-siblings.
After the initial shock wore off, Ms Ashton emailed the clinic asking for information on the number of children fathered by donor 188.
Ms Ashton first visited the Queensland Fertility Group in 2002 but only discovered two years later that her children had half-siblings (pictured, Ms Ashton and her partner with three of their children)
Ms Ashton described Donor 188 as the ‘typical Aussie sporty dude’. According to his profile, he had blond hair, blue eyes, loved surfing and was interested in science and math (photo, donor bottle 188)
Ms Ashton said the clinic replied with a list of 43 other children, categorized by year and gender only.
“We emailed the clinic and it was such a shock when we got it back to find out there were 43 others. I never expected such a number,” said Mrs Ashton.
Ms Ashton was again surprised when her eldest son took an ancestry DNA test and matched it with another donor sibling not on the Queensland clinic’s list.
Ms Ashton said the term “accidental incest” – sexual activity or marriage between persons unaware of a family relationship – “makes her sick.”
“How many children are on our list yet?” said Ms. Ashton.
“I had blindly trusted that the clinic would have thought about these things and that strict limits would apply.
‘There is no overriding legislation. There’s nothing that determines what happens, and I didn’t know that. I had no idea.’
Ms Ashton’s donor was 18 years old when he went to the clinic with a group of friends and provided sperm samples.
She added that it was hard to believe that the young man understood the full implications of sperm donation.
Ms Ashton’s (right) concern is that there could be a number of children who were not registered as fathered by donor 188 after her son Zac (left) took an ancestral DNA test and matched another donor sibling who was not on the list provided by the clinic
Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory are following the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee’s advice that ‘a maximum of ten donor families per sperm donor’ is acceptable.
In NSW, a sperm donor is limited to five women, in Victoria to 10 women and in Western Australia to five families.
Queensland Fertility Group (QFG) told Daily Mail Australia they have a ‘dedicated team’ managing donor information.
“QFG has a dedicated professional donor team that aligns with a national framework under Virtus Health,” said QFG.
“This donor team manages and coordinates the complex information exchange between donors, recipients and donor-begotten individuals, in a framework that protects sensitive health information of all individuals.
‘Our donor program supports and facilitates matching between donors and donor-begotten individuals through a voluntary matching program, counseling and support networks.’
Ms Ashton’s donor had made his donations before the law changes requiring donor identification for fathered children over the age of 18.
Her story airs on Tuesday night’s episode of SBS’s ‘Inconceivable: The Secret Business of Breeding Humans’.
Based on journalist Sarah Dingle’s search for her biological father, the hour-long documentary reveals the “highly unethical and pathologically secret affair” of Australia’s fertility industry.