The links to the surveys are now up on all the pages of the DSR. All DSR members (paying or non-paying), donor offspring ages 7+, egg and sperm donors, and all parents (non bio and bio) are invited. If you are in touch with half siblings and/or donors who are not currently on the site, please invite them. They’ll just need to set up a DSR username in order to participate.
Thanks so much for participating!!! Our letter of invitation/explanation:
Dear DSR Members:
I am writing to announce that we are moving forward with some novel research in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF) Institute for Human Genetics. We are initiating a study that will investigate the hereditary and environmental factors that influence physical, behavioral and medical traits among relatives in the DSR.
We have posted a link to a survey (roughly 35 minutes long) on the DSR website that is open to all members. I hope you and/or your donor-conceived children will consider taking this survey, which will study some interesting traits such as personality, memory and physical attributes among sibling groups, parents and donors. I know many of us look at our donor children and often wonder how they acquired their personalities and traits. For donor conceived people, not knowing one half of their genetic background can leave them with many such questions. We have an opportunity at the DSR to examine donor-conceived people, their parents and their donors to inquire about the “nature vs. nurture” of it all.
This research is based on studying families. It is open to all DSR members, including donor-conceived people (even those who have not yet matched with half-siblings and/or donors), their parents (both biological and non-biological) and the donors (if they are DSR members). For those donor-conceived people without a clinic or donor number, please feel free to complete the study with your biological and non-biological parents using your DSR username so we can identify you as a family. By systematically recording patterns in the extended families found in the DSR, we can separate heredity and environment in a novel way.
In return for your participation, you will be entered into a lottery to win one of 50 $100 gift cards from Amazon.com, to be distributed randomly when the survey closes. For more information please visit the study website at http://dsrstudy.ucsf.edu. If you have any questions, please contact myself or any member of our study team listed below. I hope that you all will be as enthusiastic about this project as I am.
Sincerely,
Wendy