IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER

‘Test-tube baby’ Esmeralda is leaving no stone unturned in her quest to find out the identity of her biological dad

- ROXANNE MOONEYS

FROM the time she was a little girl she knew she hadn’t been conceived in the same way as most of her friends – she was a “test-tube baby”, her parents told her.

Back then Esmeralda Swart didn’t really understand what this meant but when she was 18 her mother gave her all the details, explaining that she was conceived using sperm from an anonymous donor.

By that stage, the only father she’d ever known had died and this made her even more curious about her biological father.

“I’d be walking in a shopping mall and spot someone who looked a little like me. Then I’d try estimating his age and wonder if it could be him,” says Esmeralda (30), a Cape Town businesswoman who runs her own vehicle financing company.

Three years ago she decided to go in search of her biological dad. She made the decision after she became seriously ill and doctors requested her family’s medical history.

“I couldn’t tell them anything about my dad’s because I don’t know,” she says.

Her mom, Rinet Crawford, made enquiries at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town where the insemination procedure was performed. But the only information they could provide was the sperm donor’s height, hair colour, eye colour and blood type.

“They told me if I wanted any other information about his medical history, I had to apply for a court order from the high court,” Esmeralda explains.

South African law dictates that donors must remain anonymous (see box, far right) and their offspring can apply for a departure from this only in exceptional circumstances.