“Is blood thicker than water?” Donor conceived offspring subjective experiences of the donor: A systematic narrative review

The aim of this study was to provide a systematic narrative review of the published research articles on donor conceived (DC) offspring’s subjective experiences of their donor. A systematic search of electronic databases (Psycinfo and PubMed) provided 29 published quantitative and qualitative studies matching our inclusion criteria. The analysis of the studies outcomes led to the identification of four main themes: a) views/representations of the donor; b) desire to contact the donor (in terms of desire to meet the donor, reasons for wanting to contact the donor, type and frequency of contact); c) reactions to discovering the donor’s identity and contacting the donor; d) identity issues. Our findings revealed that genetic ties do matter to DC people, especially during adolescence or adulthood. Many DC people were interested in contacting the donor and all of them needed to make meaning of the role of the donor, as well as to integrate it into their family life and self-concept. Besides curiosity and medical reasons, many people reported wanting to contact the donor to see what he/she looked like, to have access to their own ancestry and genetic history.