The Netherlands

Surrogacy is not allowed in the Netherlands. But, like the use of donor gamete, if done abroad the rules of that country is followed. So using of anonymous donors or surrogacy outside the Netherlands has no consequences for the parents.

The current legal position of donor conceived (both sperm- and egg donation have the same rules) in the Netherlands has two parts.

Conceived after 2004: These people are by law registered at Stichting Donorgegevens Kunstmatige bevruchting (www.donorgegevens.nl). Clinics are not allowed to use anonymous donors. When the donor conceived is 16 years of age and they are entitled to have personal information about the donor. Stichting FIOM probably will guide the first steps in making contact between both parties. Parents and doctor can get either social or medical information at an earlier age.

Conceived before 2004: Since there was no regulations from the start in 1949 using donor conceiving people until 2004 these people have no strong rights. Rights are registered but said not possible to executable. Donor conceived people from before 2004 have two options.

  • Register at the DNA database at FIOM (www.fiom.nl) in which donor conceived (€200) and donors (€150) can register. Its possible to registers for natural children of a donor as well as donor conceived from Belgium and Germany borders. Succes rate at the moment is about 10% for a match.
  • Donor conceived can, with their birth certificate, ask for information about there donor at Stichting Donorgegevens, the Dutch central registry, where all clinics should have shared their older dossiers. If possible Stichting Donorgegevens will share some social and medical information. Personal identifying information can only be shared if the donor allows it after request by Stichting Donorgegevens.

A lot of clinics seem not to have shared their dossiers with Stichting Donorgegevens yet. A subject that Stichting Donorkind is working on. These dossiers have to be maintained for 80 years since law in the Netherlands since start of the century changed and also old dossiers about family connections have to stay in tact. Birth certificates and medical files in the Netherlands just state the only the social parents.