Whether or not someone agrees with Church teaching on IVF, this legislation is a step in the right direction.

There are a number of long-term problems that can arise from the use of IVF, and one of the biggest is the use of “anonymous” sperm and egg donors. Some new legislation in Colorado is aimed at preventing some of these problems.

The USCCB explains how problematic these anonymous donations can become.

Not infrequently, “donor” eggs or sperm are used. This means that the genetic father or mother of the child could well be someone from outside the marriage. This can create a confusing situation for the child later, when he or she learns that one parent raising him or her is not actually the biological parent. In fact, the identity of the “donor,” whether of egg or sperm, may never be known, depriving the child of an awareness of his or her own lineage. This can mean a lack of knowledge of health problems or dispositions toward health problems which could be inherited. It could lead to half brothers and sisters marrying one another, because neither knew that the sperm which engendered their lives came from the same “donor.”

Such a scenario may sound far-fetched, but there have been numerous real-life examples of donor doctors who fathered hundreds of children without any of the children knowing. This devastating scenario has also happened to couples who accidentally marry a half-sibling.

It’s a heavy burden on these children to be deprived of knowing half of their lineage and heredity. And keeping the secret is increasingly a moot point anyway, in this age of at-home DNA testing. Even if a donor intended to remain anonymous, a child with a test kit can find out an awful lot about them anyway.

This only one of many reasons that the Church teaches that…