Assisted Reproduction – Belgium: End of donor anonymity… to better safeguard the child’s interests?

The reform therefore provides that from the age of 12, children born through donation will be able to access non-identifying data (such as hair colour, eye colour and height) about their donor via an institute responsible for collecting donor information, which will be established for this purpose. As for identifying details (such as name, date of birth and nationality), these may be requested from the age of 16. The reform also provides that children will have the opportunity to find out whether other children have been conceived using their donor. They will be able to contact any such half-brothers or half-sisters, if both parties wish, from the age of 16. This lifting of anonymity is, however, contingent upon the intended parents’ decision to inform their child of how they were conceived. Specific information is provided to inform them of this requirement, which will enable children to effectively access their donor’s identity if they so wish. 

As for donors who donated before this reform, they will have the option of disclosing their identity to the children born from their donation or of remaining anonymous, as has been the case until the vote on this reform. A six-month transition period is planned during which fertility clinics will be able to use gametes donated anonymously. Thereafter, it will no longer be possible to use this stock of gametes, except to allow families who have already begun an assisted reproduction process using gametes from an anonymous donor to expand their family. 

A major reform of how fertility centres operate is also planned to ensure effective access to their origins for children born through gamete donation, but also to prevent further health scandals linked to poor donor tracing, particularly from foreign banks. Fertility centres will be required to enter donor data (and any non-identifying data they hold on past donors) into the new central register. This central register will enable better monitoring of donors, any incidents related to their donation, and the number of children resulting from it. The authors of this reform thus hope to ensure compliance with the rule in Belgium that limits the number of families able to benefit from gametes from the same donor to six. At a time when the majority of gametes come from other countries due to a lack of sufficient donors in Belgium and given that there is no uniform limit imposed by the European Union on the number of families per donor, compliance with this rule will require genuine coordination between countries. 

As Minister Franck Vandenbroucke, who is also behind this bill, acknowledges: “Knowing one’s origins helps to better understand who one is. This can be important for mental well-being and for finding strength in life. From now on, the child’s best interests take precedence.” By offering children the opportunity to establish a connection with the person who made their existence possible through a gamete donation, the authors of this reform emphasise the importance of the biological link that until now had been overlooked. The question arises, however, as to how the child will experience this “multiple parentage”, between the intended parents who will be responsible for raising them and the donor or donors responsible for their conception. 

In a context where the use of assisted reproduction continues to rise, the question of the best interests of children conceived using donor gametes is indeed a major one. But beyond knowing the donor’s identity, is the challenge not also about how to live and develop one’s identity with a parentage that the method of conception has fragmented? 

Further reading: EIB report, Le droit de connaître ses origines, by Géraldine Mathieu 

Source: Accord au conseil des ministres : Levée de l’anonymat des donneurs : l’intérêt de l’enfant prime (27 February 2026)