ABSTRACT
Secrecy is often a central issue in discussions of artificial insemination with a donor's sperm, the oldest of the alternative methods of conception and one which has been used by a few hundred thousand families worldwide. Secrecy is a key issue for people involved in donor insemination. It is almost always surrounded by secrecy—secrecy about the identity of the donor, secrecy between the couple and their friends and family about what they are doing, and secrecy from the child conceived about his or her true origins. The secrecy inevitably produces some awkwardness at times, especially when family members and friends speculate, as they always do, about which parent a child resembles. The explanation for secrecy which is not often offered explicitly is the desire to protect the two fathers, both the sperm donor and the social/ legal father. Some physicians indicate a preference for secrecy based on a concern that it will be impossible to recruit sperm donors without a guarantee of anonymity.
