A man who donated sperm anonymously in the 1980s was surprised when he received a call from a daughter he never knew he had. Peter Peacock, 68, initially got a letter from the organisation in charge of the clinic he gave sperm to nearly 40 years ago. The Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA) told him it had an enquiry of a personal nature that may or may not relate to him. ‘The matter concerns a record held in relation to a project you may have assisted with at Prince Henry’s Institute,’ it said.
It turned out his biological daughter Gypsy Diamond, 36, was trying to get hold of him. This surprised Mr Peacock because he had donated his sperm anonymously to Prince Henry’s clinic, in Melbourne, Australia, all those years ago. The divorced grandfather was unaware a new law had taken effect in Victoria, Australia, in 2017 that gave the offspring of sperm and egg donors the legal right to know who they were. The district went further by imposing the law retroactively.
Mr Peacock did not mind being contacted and started an email correspondence with Ms Diamond, who he knew was his daughter the first time he saw a picture of her. ‘God almighty, I looked at it and I thought – “Bloody hell. I can’t deny that girl,”‘ he said. ‘She was my child from the start.’ Under the law, donors do have the right to demand that their offspring not contact them and can be fined if they do.