Davina McCall show Born From the Same Stranger branded 'irresponsible'

What did you miss?

ITV's new relative tracing series, Born From the Same Stranger, has left some viewers feeling uncomfortable as they questioned the privacy of anonymous sperm and egg donors.

The documentary, narrated by Long Lost Family host Davina McCall, sees people conceived by sperm and egg donations try to trace their biological relatives, but viewers thought it was much more of a moral grey area than McCall's hit family tree show.

What, how, and why?

Born From the Same Stranger launched on Monday night, following people conceived from donors who were longing to find out who their biological parents were.

Although narrator Davina McCall has a long-running ITV hit with the emotive Long Lost Family, those tuning in felt that the new series was a step too far in terms of privacy for any sperm or egg donors involved.

Donor anonymity was lifted in 2005 so that anyone conceived from a donor is able to trace their parent once they turn 18, but one of the episode's contributors, Liam, was not able to be helped by the new laws as he is 28.

He was keen to find his unknown father and while he could only be given anonymous information about him, which brought him to tears over their apparent similarities in the clinic questionnaire, he did discover three half-siblings - Charlie, 28, Beth, 25, and Mae, 27, as well as another half-brother who did not want to appear on camera.

But while they enjoyed getting to know each other, one viewer wrote on X: "I think this is a pretty grotesquely irresponsible piece of television. I mean if you donated sperm in the mid 90's and you were told that your details would be kept confidential for life, irrespective of if the child in their latter years wanted to find out who their father was, to then conduct a programme of children (now adults) trying to trace who their father was and having it filmed could destroy someones life both for the father and for the child. This is not entertainment and could have massive repercussions psychologically for both sides..."

Someone else added: "Not sure how I feel about this programme," while another viewer agreed: "not sure how I feel about all this, I can totally understand why the men are saying no contact."

Another viewer asked: "I feel for the men who donated on #bornfromthesamestranger like don’t they have the right to privacy?"

Others thought it raised moral questions about the whole process as one person commented: "I am angry about the anonymity of the sperm donors in #BornFromTheSameStranger. Every child has the right to know who their biological parents are. Men should never have been allowed to give sperm anonymously, and that condition of anonymity should be revoked retrospectively."

Someone else agreed: "The resulting children didn't sign an agreement though."

Another viewer wrote: "A lot of thoughts on #BornFromTheSameStranger - I do hope the participants received behind the scenes counselling," as one of the women featured confirmed that they were offered counselling.

Will we be back for more?

While understandable concerns were raised about some of the issues of donor conception, McCall is known for handling emotional subjects sensitively.

One person commented that it was the industry, not the programme, at fault, writing on X: "Here's what's grossly irresponsible: -Unregulated sperm & egg donation -Creating humans to intentionally deprive them of medical information -People with a dozen+ half-siblings The show is not irresponsible. The industry is."

Meanwhile, others said they would like to see the other side of the story as one person commented: "Hi @ITV - could you do a programme from the point of view of men from the 90s who became donors on the promise of anonymity ? Living everyday lives and then filming them getting the phone call they thought they would never get ? Etc."

Born From the Same Stranger airs on ITV at 9pm on Monday.

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