{"id":306957,"date":"2024-02-15T14:46:54","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T20:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=306957"},"modified":"2025-04-15T00:58:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T05:58:40","slug":"woman-learns-donor-conceived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-learns-donor-conceived\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman learns she was donor-conceived: &#8216;I wasn&#8217;t the person I was&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>A British woman is speaking out about the trauma she experienced after learning she was donor-conceived.<\/p>\n<p>Amanda Burgess, 34, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/femail\/article-13022427\/WWoman-34-reveals-finally-felt-like-normal-person-finding-sperm-donor-siblings-including-half-brother.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> her story on an ITV documentary called &#8220;Born from the Same Stranger.&#8221; She said she learned by accident that her biological father was a sperm donor when she was 21.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8220;I was 21. That night out was just like any other normal night out I would have had, and then my mum walked in,&#8221; Burgess said on the show. &#8220;My friend looked at her and said: &#8216;You need to tell her.&#8217; My mum had told my friend&#8217;s mother the big secret, and then the next morning, my mum just blurted it out: &#8216;Your dad&#8217;s not your dad, we had to use a sperm donor.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Burgess went on: &#8220;From that point, life was just different. I wasn&#8217;t the person I was 24 hours ago. Suddenly, I was donor conceived.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lost-four-siblings-abortion-pro-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>She lost four siblings to abortion. Now she\u2019s pro-life.<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Though Burgess didn&#8217;t wish to upset her parents, she described yearning to know her real father, a yearning that led her to take a DNA test years later. &#8220;If I knew the identity of the donor, I would know once and for all, who I am,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8220;And if there are half-siblings, I would love to have a relationship with them. It&#8217;s really hard, you don&#8217;t know who you are, almost.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Burgess did learn her father&#8217;s identity through the test, which led her to break down in tears on the show. She has since connected with him, and said, &#8220;I definitely feel lighter like a weight lifted inside, and I feel like I&#8217;m not so alone anymore.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Burgess&#8217;s story mirrors that of many other donor-conceived children who describe feeling shocked at learning their parentage is not what they thought. Many have struggled with learning that they have dozens or even <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/sperm-donation-200-siblings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hundreds<\/a>\u00a0of siblings they were unaware of, while others have <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-life-collapsed-conceived-donor-sperm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">described<\/a> feeling mental and emotional strain. One Harvard Medical School study\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bioethics.hms.harvard.edu\/journal\/donor-technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found<\/a> that nearly half of children the children conceived through donor technologies sought psychological care after learning how they were conceived.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\"><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\"><a class=\"c-link c-link--focus-visible\" href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/ARQQhk1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/ARQQhk1\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30 seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A British woman is speaking out about the trauma she experienced after learning she was donor-conceived. Amanda Burgess, 34, told her story on an ITV documentary called &#8220;Born from the Same Stranger.&#8221; She said she learned by accident that her biological father was a sperm donor when she was 21. &#8220;I was 21. That night [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":191970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Woman learns she was donor-conceived: &#039;I wasn&#039;t the person I was&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Woman speaks out about the trauma she experienced after learning she was donor-conceived. &#039;From that point, life was just different.&#039;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-learns-donor-conceived\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Woman learns she was donor-conceived: &#039;I wasn&#039;t the person I was&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Woman speaks out about the trauma she experienced after learning she was donor-conceived. &#039;From that point, life was just different.&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-learns-donor-conceived\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-15T20:46:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-15T05:58:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/woman-sad-women-abortion-regret.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bridget Sielicki\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bridget Sielicki\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-learns-donor-conceived\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-learns-donor-conceived\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bridget Sielicki\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/354818e37fca891455094342cfaacf2f\"},\"headline\":\"Woman learns she was donor-conceived: &#8216;I wasn&#8217;t the person I was&#8217;\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-15T20:46:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-15T05:58:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-learns-donor-conceived\/\"},\"wordCount\":390,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"International\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-learns-donor-conceived\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-learns-donor-conceived\/\",\"name\":\"Woman learns she was donor-conceived: 'I wasn't the person I was'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-15T20:46:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-15T05:58:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"Woman speaks out about the trauma she experienced after learning she was donor-conceived. 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