“British scientist ‘fathered 600 children’ by donating sperm at his own fertility clinic”

• — Bertold Wiesner set up the controversial London Barton clinic with his wife Mary Bartons in the 1940s
• — Only select members of the couple’s friends were chosen as donors to help women conceive 1,500 babies
• — Two biological sons have found 18 others conceived at clinic – 12 were fathered by Dr Wiesner

Read more . . .

“I sat with other audience members on folding chairs in a small Soho gallery theatre for the debut of Anonymous Father’s Day, watching Stephanie Blessing’s face onscreen as she learned her dad was not her biological father.”

World New York: “New Documentary Reveals the Other Side of Anonymous Sperm Donation”

“There’s much of interest in the film, which I highly recommend, and there was much of interest in the discussion.”

ARTful Questions: “Anonymous Father’s Day: The Center for Bioethics and Culture Documentatry”

We’ve posted some photos on our facebook page. Click over there and have a look.

“Anonymous Father’s Day” Profiles Children of Sperm Donors

Anonymous Father’s Day is a film about adults of anonymous sperm donors and their perspective which is the one we most need to hear.

New documentary gives voice to adult children of sperm donors

The 45-minute documentary was so absorbing I watched it twice . . . a profound documentary

Anonymous Father’s Day

It’s Father’s Day again — that is, Anonymous Father’s Day, a time to become aware of what the children of donor dads think of their absent, unknown progenitors.

Fatherless: New documentary questions morality of anonymous sperm donation industry

“There is more concern about the health and safety consequences of a minivan than there is about the health and safety consequences of children conceived with donor sperm.”

Anonymous Father’s Day: Children of Sperm Donors Speak

Donor children often feel the same curiosity or longing to know their origins that some adopted children feel. With the difference that the quest for their biological dad often ends up with a number, not a name.

Anonymous Father’s Day»: documental sobre la industria lucrativa de los donadores de esperma

En el documental quedan plasmados el dolor, la nostalgia y la incertidumbre de personas nacidas sin conocer quién era su padre.

New doco explores pain of children of anonymous sperm donors

Anonymous Father’s Day features the reflections of now adult children fathered anonymously. They share the pain, longing and uncertainties created by the secrecy of their conceptions.

San Ramon, CA/November 21, 2011 — From Jennifer Lahl and The Center for Bioethics and Culture, producers of the award-winning Eggsploitation (2010), Anonymous Father’s Day presents the untold stories of children of sperm donors. Featuring the heart-rending reflections of now adult children fathered anonymously, these donor-conceived children share the pain, longing and uncertainties created by the secrecy of their conceptions. Each has a real, biological father kept secret from them by an industry fixated on profits and product. It is an industry unconcerned for the emotional, medical and physical needs of the children whose conception it sells through the resale of sperm acquired from anonymous men.

Kathleen Sloan, Feminist, human rights advocate, and author, National Organization for Women (NOW) comments:

Anonymous Father’s Day gives a voice to those adult children of Third Party Reproduction (TPR) who have a fundamental human right to information about their genetic history for their health and medical care, to their identity and family history, and to siblings they may have all over the world. The U.S. obsession with capitalist profit-generation has resulted in a major human rights violation of the children of TPR. It is a damning indictment that the U.S. is the only country in the world besides Somalia to have failed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Jennifer Lahl’s film sheds much needed light on an ever-growing population ignored and too often silenced by society.

What is it like to grow up not knowing who your father is or who your siblings are? What is it like to find out that the man who is your biological father, who you most fundamentally resemble, is knowable only as a catalogue “sperm” number? How does it impact your self-perception, the choices you make, and your view of life and the world? Donor-conceived people are demanding answers to these basic questions about their origins, their lives, and their identities.

Anonymous Father’s Day is available today, November 21, 2011, for online viewing at PreScreen.com and on DVD at http://www.anonymousfathersday.com/purchase/

The World Premiere of Anonymous Father’s Day will be in New York City on January 29, 2012, details to be announced.

For more information, visit AnonymousFathersDay.com.

Media Contact: Jennifer Lahl
Founder and President, CBC
+1-510-290-3891
jennifer.lahl@cbc-network.org

The official trailer is live on YouTube (and on the home page), and embedded below. Enjoy and spread the word!