Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today a person can know much more about his or her health vulnerabilities through genetic testing than he or she would ever know from a brief medical history of his or her biological family up to the time he or she was conceived. Since the discovery of the genome and all of the enormous advances in genetic and hereditary medicine, the idea of having a history from the biological parent which is comprehensive and adequate is now largely irrelevant.

As I understand it, most of those who donate sperm are young men in the 18 to 30 age group. Unless they are required, be they in Ireland, Denmark or the United States, to provide details of their medical history annually, how their vulnerabilities develop and what their medical history is may not be known until they are in their 50s, 60s or 70s. By that time, the world will have substantially moved on for the child who has been born. The practical reality is that we cannot require someone who makes a donation to furnish annual returns as to the state of his or her health.