'All About Me', New Drama Exploring Donor Conception, The Search For Identity, And The Nature Of Family, Friday April 20th On BBC 1 At 2.05pm

Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Transplants / Organ Donations
Article Date: 03 Apr 2007 - 11:00 PDT

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Elliott Conroy, 19, is on the edge of a new life as he waits for the exam grades to go to University. His parents, Helen and Tony, have always been rock solid - but now there are tensions between them, raised voices and painful silences. Elliott's accidental discovery that Helen has a degenerative illness, opens up a series of painful revelations which challenge Elliott's sense of his own identity and fracture the family. ALL ABOUT ME by Malcolm Campbell explores donor insemination, genetic inheritance and the damage of secrets and lies.

The drama was inspired by recent changes in the laws regarding donor anonymity for sperm and egg donors. Donor conceived children now have the right to trace their donor parents, just as adopted children do. The chance of tracing a donor father is very remote as records have always been very sketchy. But three weeks ago in the United States, teenager Ryann M met Donor 150, her genetic father, also known as Jeffrey Harrison. Here in the UK, a pilot project called DonorLink helps trace half siblings. It's not surprising that there has been an enormous drop in the number of men coming forward to donate sperm as they consider the consequences of multiple paternal responsibility. Only 150 sperm donors registered in 2005, the year the anonymity law changed.

This was the immediate inspiration for ALL ABOUT ME and it grew into an exploration of the painful struggle for identity in the life of one family as they struggle with a very contemporary take on the nature/nurture debate.

ALL ABOUT ME comes from triple BAFTA award-winning indie Resource Base, commissioned by BBC Education and BBC Daytime in a first co-production.

Producer: Hilary Durman
Director: Beryl Richards

Cast:
Elliott Conroy - Nicholas Shaw
Tony Conroy - Phil Davis
Helen Conroy - Phoebe Nicholls
Danny - Danny Webb
Sophie - Caroline Williamson
Petra - Vera Filatova

www.ukdonorlink.org.uk
www.donor-conception-network.org
www.parkinsons.org.uk

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Christian Nordqvist. "'All About Me', New Drama Exploring Donor Conception, The Search For Identity, And The Nature Of Family, Friday April 20th On BBC 1 At 2.05pm." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 3 Apr. 2007. Web.
15 Feb. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/67014.php>

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APA

Christian Nordqvist. (2007, April 3). "'All About Me', New Drama Exploring Donor Conception, The Search For Identity, And The Nature Of Family, Friday April 20th On BBC 1 At 2.05pm." Medical News Today. Retrieved from
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/67014.php.

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