We all carry inside us people who came before, wrote American author Liam Callanan. And in every new family line, glimpses of the older can be seen. A grandfather’s lopsided smile reappears in a grandson. Three generations of women have the same violet-flecked eyes. For historian Rose Overberg, it’s chestnut-colored hair and distinctive height that she shares with her mother. “A lot of people say I look like Mum,” she says.
But while Rose has freckles and brown eyes, her mother has olive-toned skin and green eyes, and there are other features that can’t be accounted for. “Nobody in my family has my eyebrows,” she says.
For most of her life, Rose didn’t know who gave her those attributes, and she never thought much of it until she tried to find out and was blocked at every turn. Rose was conceived with the help of donor sperm in 1975, when the now-thriving fertility business was just a cottage industry without regulation or proper record keeping. Years later, when she tried to find out about her donor, she was shocked to learn that all evidence of her conception had disappeared.
And Rose was not alone. By the time the Victorian government made record-keeping mandatory in 1988, thousands of donor-conceived babies had been born. Many have files, but a significant number have not.
Rose describes herself as “pretty stubborn and self-righteous”, and she became determined to get to the bottom of this. “You’re creating a person and there are no medical records. How is that ethical?” she asks. “I don’t think they ever thought about the children. If the doctors had some foresight about our wellbeing, they’d have kept those records.”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2020 من The Australian Women's Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2020 من The Australian Women's Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
