ABSTRACT

Changing Policies and Practices Relating to Donor Insemination in Denmark The Danish legislation relating to ARTs was implemented in 1997. Since then, regulations and practices have changed significantly, and become increasingly complex (Mohr 2014; Adrian 2015). In a Danish context, the development of private sperm banks as part of a larger fertility industry is intriguing, as free public health care is a cornerstone of the welfare state. However, sperm banking and sperm donation have been at the forefront of privatization, and today two sperm banks selling donor sperm globally are situated in Denmark (Adrian 2015). During my first fieldwork in 2002, the original legislation on ARTs, enacted in 1997, did not allow medical doctors to provide fertility treatment to lesbians

or single women; this legislation was passed after acrimonious debates in the Danish Parliament (Lützen 2000; Bryld 2001; Stormhøj 2002; Albæk 2003). However, this was challenged in 1999 when the first insemination clinic was established by a midwife offering treatment to single women and lesbian couples. This was possible in practice because the legislation only prevented medical doctors from doing so. In 2007, the EU Tissue and Cell Directive was implemented in Denmark (Sundhedsstyrelsen 2015). In the same year, medical doctors were permitted to give lesbians and single women fertility treatment, even at public hospitals (Petersen 2009). From 2006-2012, the midwife clinics began offering a broader choice regarding the selection of sperm from Danish donors. This was possible because Danish sperm banks were permitted at this point to offer sperm donation with non-anonymous donors and donors with extended profiles. Clinics owned by medical doctors, which were regulated by the law on assisted reproduction, were, in contrast to the unregulated midwife clinics, not allowed to market donor sperm with extended donor profiles back then. But recently, in 2012, this practice became legal for medical doctors, too.3