Legal framework for sperm donation

Greek legislation

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According to the current legislation, sperm donation may, at the donor’s choice, be anonymous or non-anonymous and in the second case, either his details be disclosed from the beginning or be disclosed to the child after he/she reaches adulthood, if the latter requests it. If the donor selects anonymity, medical information concerning him is kept in a confidential file without any indication of his identity. Access to this file is only allowed to the child and for reasons related to his/her health. The donor is protected against any claim of recognition of paternity, as well as against all rights arising there from. However, in no case the identity of the recipients, as well as that of the child or children born through the process of using donor sperm, are disclosed to the donor of the reproductive material. Donation of reproductive material is allowed only between collateral relatives. Medical information concerning the sperm donor is kept strictly confidential and in codified form in the Sperm Cryopreservation Bank and the National Registry of Donors and Recipients, which must be maintained by the National Authority for Medically Assisted Reproduction (NAMRA). Access to this file is only allowed to the child and for reasons related to his/her health. In the case of anonymous donation, according to an explicit legislative provision, the identity of the person who has offered the gametes is not disclosed to the recipients and the children. Also, the identity of the child, as well as its parents, is not disclosed to the sperm donor.

Financial compensation based on legislation

Participation in the sperm donation program is voluntary and is not remunerated (article 8 of law 3305/2005). Sperm donors are reimbursed only for the expenses related to the travel expenses and any positive damage for their presence in the Sperm Bank in order to collect the samples.

Νομικό πλαίσιο δωρεάς σπέρματος

Legal requirements

According to Greek law, the maximum number of children born from the same donor is restricted to ten (10), unless a recipient family who has already given birth to a child, wishes to have a sibling by use of the same donor’s sample. In case the donor has fathered his own children, he is asked to report this to the Sperm Bank.

The child born after the successful application of the assisted reproduction method using donor sperm shall have as its legal mother the wife/spouse and as its legal father the husband/partner. The consent of the husband/partner to the wife/spouse being subjected to heterologous in-vitro fertilization prohibits any objection to paternity.

For more information on the legal framework, you can also refer to the website of the National Authority of Medically Assisted Reproduction.

Only the use of frozen donor sperm is allowed. What is forbidden: The use of semen originating from more than one donor in the same reproductive cycle, as well as any commercial activity (i.e. buying-selling) regarding the provision of semen. The financial cost that the recipient has to pay covers all the expenses that are required in order for the gametes to be safely provided from the donor to the recipient. These include the costs for the medical and laboratory examinations of the donor and his semen, the donor’s compensation, the freezing, cryopreservation, release and transfer costs of the samples. The financial cost that the recipient has to pay covers all the legal expenses that are required in order for the gametes to be safely provided from the donor to the recipient. These include the costs for the medical and laboratory examinations of the donor and his semen, the donor’s compensation, the freezing, cryopreservation, release and transfer costs of the samples.