What do I need to know before entering into a known donor agreement?

Conception with a known donor can provide a more personal dimension to your family building arrangement, however, it can also create risks in practice because the parties are known to each other. Changes of heart, disagreements and changes of circumstances can have an impact on your overall legal position, particularly after the birth if the donor has established a relationship with the child.

To protect yourself against these risks, you should seriously consider entering into a carefully written known donor agreement. If you do, the English Family Court can take this into account if a dispute arises. Whilst the court’s paramount consideration is the welfare of the child, your known donor agreement can be important evidence, clearly illustrating what was intended, understood, and agreed between you and your donor.

Vardags can support you with tailored legal advice on the preparation of a known donor agreement, legal parenthood and parental responsibility for a child conceived through known donation, resolving a legal dispute with a known donor or other party, and fertility treatment law in the UK with donor sperm and eggs (including informed consent to treatment at a UK fertility clinic).