Born through artificial insemination, Olivia Pratten is fighting to have the Adoption Act declared unconstitutional so that children conceived by sperm donors can find out who their father is.
Olivia Pratten’s battle to learn the identity of her biological father — an anonymous sperm donor — went to court Monday with her lawyer arguing she should not be treated as a second-class citizen.
The 28-year-old journalist from Toronto has campaigned for 10 years for the same rights that adopted children have.
Pratten, who was born in Nanaimo in March of 1982, said she has a father and mother and is not looking for another father.
“I want the choice of knowing if I can meet him,” she told reporters outside court.
“When you’re conceived in anonymity, the choice of whether or not you want to know this person is taken away from you.”
Pratten is challenging the laws that prevent her from finding out the identity of the man who donated sperm for her conception.
Lawyer Joe Arvay, a constitutional expert, said the current laws deny a person’s constitutional guarantees to security of the person and to equal treatment under the law.
“[Pratten] doesn’t want to interfere in [her biological father’s] life,” Arvay told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elaine Adair.
“She wants to know who this person is who gave her life.”
The legal team for the defendant Attorney General of B.C. has argued in previous proceedings that the records of Pratten’s biological father were destroyed years ago, so the case is moot.
Pratten is not convinced that is so.
When she met in 2001 with the Vancouver doctor who performed the procedure on her mother, he told her the donor was a medical student and a Caucasian with a sturdy build, brown hair, blue eyes and Type A blood.
When she pressed him further, the doctor allegedly told her, “Don’t worry, dear. I did a verbal medical check and he was healthy,” she said in an affidavit.
Pratten, like many adopted children, is concerned that the absence of medical records of her biological father could lead to her own medical problems, and she worries that she could possibly date or marry her half-brother or half-sister.
Arvay’s co-counsel Sean Hern told the judge the donor, who was presumably a young man 29 years ago, may have changed his mind about remaining anonymous over the years and may be interested in connecting with Pratten.
There are an estimated 16,000 such children in Canada. But unlike adoptions, there is no legal requirement for doctors or the government to keep records of biological parents.
Pratten’s the first case of its kind in North America.
“I’ve met many, many people, at many conferences, here and in the U.S. I’ve never met anybody who is happy with anonymity,” said Pratten.
The trial is expected to last one week.
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