As closed adoptions continue to fade out of favor, and medical science continues to progress, adoption reunions will take on some whole new dimensions in the future. For some, these new reunions are already occurring. I believe these new reunions to be only a beginning of a whole new trend in the future for adoption reunions.

The new reunions that I refer to are those between siblings of sperm donors, and in some case involving the sperm donors themselves. In past decades, men who became sperm donors were mostly anonymous donors, with no intention of ever meeting the children created from their sperm.

Women who became pregnant in this manner accepted not knowing the sperm donor's identity. The children who were created in this manner, like most children of adoption, had no say in the matter.

As many of these children created from anonymous sperm donors have grown, however, they are questioning the moral "rightness" of not knowing the identity of their biological "father". I placed "father" in quotes, as there is much discussion as to whether a sperm donor is properly called a "father". Certainly most men do not donate their sperm with the intention of fulfilling a fatherly role.

Knowing one's identity is being perceived increasingly as a "right", and restricting access to sperm donor records is becoming less acceptable in some circles. There are already registries available for those who want to identify their biological "father".

Donor Registry.

I did not realize that searching for a biological "father" was not the only parent that may be the aim of a search. Apparently, in checking out this registry, some children are also searching for their egg donor biological "mothers" as well.

Our legal system has some catching up to do as far as the changes in adoption. The wave of artificially inseminated babies coming into adulthood, and wanting to find their roots is one issue to be addressed. I seriously doubt that due to a number of factors, the numbers of babies created through donor inseminations will decrease. Instead, I believe they will continue to grow.