Donor-conceived woman Katherine Vine has been endeavouring to alert her biological siblings to a family risk of bowel cancer.
She says she has a 35-year-old half-sister who is potentially unaware of the genetic danger, despite a 2024 law change that grants donor-conceived individuals greater access to knowledge about biological family.
In a bid to identify and notify her half-sister, Ms Vine wrote to the SA government which initially knocked back her request on privacy grounds but has since attempted to devise a compromise solution.
The case of a donor-conceived woman who desperately wants to warn her unknown half-sister of a family cancer risk has been described by South Australia's health minister as one of the trickiest ethical dilemmas he has faced during his time in the job.
Katherine Vine has more than 50 confirmed half-siblings who were conceived from the same donor, and her research into her family tree has led her to identify an elevated bowel cancer risk.
"It's serrated polyposis syndrome, and you just need preventative checks like colonoscopies, but much younger than you would normally," she told 891 ABC Adelaide.
For several years, she has been pushing for reforms that would make it easier for donor-conceived individuals to pass on important medical information to biological siblings whom they have never met.
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