Arthur Kermalvezen, conceived through sperm donation, spent years imagining the identity of his biological father. "I imagined he could be my teacher, people I saw on the bus," he explained, "and I got very angry because it's impossible to live like that."
When he fell in love as an adult with Audrey, another woman conceived through sperm donation in Paris, the uncertainty became urgent. When both were born, there were only two sperm banks in Paris and many men had made multiple donations, so there was a real possibility they were half-siblings. Audrey describes their meeting as "love at first sight," but the question was whether it was a romantic or genetic connection.
In France, only a research scientist, a doctor or a judge can order genetic tests, and possession of a home test kit can result in fines of over US$4,288. A law in force since 1994 prohibits companies such as 23andMe, Ancestry and MyHeritage from marketing their services in the country. Supporters of the rule argue it prevents sensitive genetic data from reaching commercial companies and unexpected results from causing family disputes. But Arthur pointed out that France is the only country in Europe that penalises this type of testing.
After months of searching, the couple found a doctor in southern France who, paid in cash, conducted a genetic test revealing they were not related. However, they doubted the reliability of the result. Audrey, a lawyer specialising in bioethics, decided to act within the legal framework, initiating from 2010 a series of lawsuits against the French system to access information about their donors. In 2015, France's supreme administrative court rejected her final appeal.
Shortly before the birth of their first child, a doctor agreed to investigate information about their respective donors. He discovered they were born in different years, so they could not be the same person. After years of resistance, the couple finally took a home DNA test, which confirmed they were not related. The results also revealed that Audrey shared a biological donor with Sophie, a woman whose legal case she herself had defended in court. Audrey and Arthur underwent DNA testing along with eight other activists conceived through sperm donation; among the ten, four turned out to have the same donor.