The Principle of anonymity (Confidentiality) In Embryo and Gamete Donation; 3RD Millennium Dilemma

Infertility is considered as one of the oldest human dilemmas that have caused difficult periods of life with various nervous breakdowns and psychological pressures for the people involved in and finally such conditions led to some efforts to be made in order to achieve proper solutions for the case. One form of infertility which was thought incurable heretofore was "nonexistence of sexual cells" in which using the third person's gamete for fertilizing an infertile person has opened new horizons in treating the mentioned disorder. Along with the success of the great efforts were made in fertilizing the infertile person using the third person gamete, several ethical and juridical questions and challenges aroused that required specific regulations to be issued, especially for the state of donating gamete and embryo to the infertile couple, more necessary than ever. In order to solve these problems, different committees were formed within different countries and some rules were ratified in many countries upon which special conditions were determined for gamete and embryo donation or reception. One of these conditions is anonymity or "confidentiality" that is of the most discussable issues among all juridical and ethical schools. To conceal a parent-child genetic relationship is one of the important subjects which are ethically, jurisprudentially, legally, sociologically and psychologically discussable. A new article of law was ratified in Britain in 2005 that has terminated the anonymity of the gamete or embryo donor. Other countries like Austria, Sweden, Norway, Netherland and New Zealand issued similar regulations subsequently and put them into the action. The current study tries to challenge the principle of anonymity or confidentiality through analyzing different (ethical, jurisprudential, sociological and psychological) areas.