Searches for biological fathers don't always have Hollywood endings
-
-
In "The Kids Are All Right," a lesbian couple (Annette Bening, left, and Julianne Moore) are learning to deal with their children (Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska) finding the man (Mark Ruffalo) who anonymously donated the sperm to father them.
Share with others:
Devon knows her father is a thin man with hazel eyes and wavy brown hair -- but she may never know his name.
A 20-year-old New York University student, Devon was conceived with sperm from the Milton S. Hershey Clinic at Penn State University through artificial insemination. After graduating from high school, she found a piece of paper in her parents' room with general information on her donor but nothing she could use to identify him.
Devon, who asked that her last name not be used, said she isn't searching for her father with any urgency, but in her late teens when she began to feel a sense of medical responsibility for herself, she decided to try to find her donor's medical information. Last year she posted the little information she knows about him on the Americans for Open Records website (amfor.net), which contains a registry for donors and donor offspring.
"I am now 19 and am having some health issues ... which require a more complete family history," her listing reads. "Beyond the obvious health concerns, I'm just curious."
Connecting with sperm donors isn't always as easy as it is portrayed in "The Kids Are All Right," a film starring Julianne Moore, Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo, which opened in Pittsburgh Friday after early success in other cities.
In the movie, the children of lesbian partners (Ms. Moore and Ms. Bening) find the man (Mr. Ruffalo) whose sperm was used in their conception. Mr. Ruffalo's character and the children attempt to forge relationships, but the experience is not entirely what the parties involved had hoped.
The film's director and co-writer Lisa Cholodenko, who is raising a child conceived through artificial reproductive technology with her partner, said she wanted to explore the idea that a donor might not live up to a child's picture of her biological parent.
"There's always that kind of first blush of fantasy about who that person is, and nobody lives up to that," Ms. Cholodenko said. "Everyone is human and ultimately falls from grace in a certain way when they're held up to some kind of perfect ideal."
The topic of artificial insemination also surfaced in the movie "The Back-Up Plan," released in April, and is part of the plot in "The Switch," set to debut in August. The films highlight the growing number of offspring of sperm donations who are trying to find their fathers. Dozens of websites and online groups have formed to help donors and offspring connect.
First Published July 26, 2010 12:00 am
