Finding your sperm donor not as easy as in movies

Devon Wolfkiel knows her father is a thin man with hazel eyes and wavy brown hair - but she may never know his name.

Wolfkiel, 20, a New York University student, was conceived with sperm from Penn State's Milton S. Hershey Clinic through artificial insemination. After graduating from high school, she found a paper in her parents' room with information, but nothing she could use to identify her donor.

She said her search is not urgent, but in her late teens, when she began to feel a sense of medical responsibility for herself, she decided to try to find her donor's medical information. Last year she posted what little she knows on the Americans for Open Records website (amfor.net), which contains a registry for donors and donor offspring.

"I am now 19 and am having some health issues . . . which require a more complete family history," her listing reads. "Beyond the obvious health concerns, I'm just curious."

Connecting with sperm donors isn't always as easy as it is portrayed in the new film The Kids Are All Right, starring Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, and Mark Ruffalo. In the movie, the children of lesbian partners find the man whose sperm was used in their conception. He and the children attempt to forge relationships, but the result is not entirely what the parties involved had hoped.

Director and cowriter Lisa Cholodenko, who is raising a child conceived through artificial reproductive technology with her partner, said she wanted to explore the idea that a donor might not live up to a child's picture of her biological parent.

"There's always that kind of first blush of fantasy about who that person is, and nobody lives up to that," Cholodenko said. "Everyone is human and ultimately falls from grace in a certain way when they're held up to some kind of perfect ideal."

Artificial insemination also surfaced in The Back-Up Plan, released in April, and in The Switch, debuting in August. The films highlight the growing number of offspring of sperm donations who are trying to find their fathers. Dozens of websites and online groups have formed to help donors and offspring connect.