I want to introduce a subject for discussion: is using donor eggs for IVF the same thing as adoption? What about using donated semen for artificial insemination or for IVF? What are the ramifications of these procedures to the children who are created in such a way?

I don't mean the LEGAL ramifications, but the emotional ones. If you are a child created using someone other than your (birth)parents' DNA (as opposed to your (bio)parents), do you have the same kind of identity issues or conflicts that adopted children sometimes have? Do people who are using donated sperm/eggs think about it this way?

According to this article on eggdonor.com, donated eggs are treated legally the same way that donated sperm are treated:

Currently, the most effective argument available to address the relinquishment of parental rights by an Egg Donor is to analogize the egg donor to a semen donor. According to the Sperm Donor Act, adopted in many states, the donor of semen provided to a licensed physician for use in the artificial insemination of a woman other than the donor's wife is treated in law as if he were not the father of the child. Thus, the genetic father bears no financial, legal or social responsibility for a child born as a result of the donation. Moreover, where donor sperm is utilized, the intended parents need not take any legal steps to finalize the paternity of the child. Rather, the intended father is considered to be the legal father.

So - this basically says that the bio parents have no legal responsibility for the child born from their sperm or egg. Although I have big problems with this whole issue (I'll get into that in a little bit), I think that this part of the scenario makes sense. It's as if those (bio)parents are essentially placing their child for adoption - although it's not a child yet, just some cells floating around in a petri dish or test tube or whatever they use to do those procedures.

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