Row 02 of 05Donor limit
Egg donor limits by state and territory
Four places set a number. New South Wales counts 5 women (s 27) and Victoria 10 women (s 29), Queensland counts 10 donor-related Australian families (s 25), and Western Australia’s Human Reproductive Technology Directions 2021 allow no more than 5 recipient families (direction 8.1). For South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory, this site’s sources hold no number, and this page prints none.
- NSW5 women
- VIC10 women
- QLD10 donor-related families
- WA5 recipient families
- SANot in these sources
- TASNot in these sources
- ACTNot in these sources
- NTNot in these sources
Filled: a number in an Act, or in Western Australia’s Directions. Open: no number in this site’s sources, which is not the same as no rule.
General information, not legal or medical advice. The places to check are each state’s own law: the NSW Act, the Victorian Act, the Queensland Act and Western Australia’s Directions.
Comparison
The limits, place by place
| Place | Limit | What it counts | Where it is set | Exceptions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | 5 women, or a lower number in the donor’s consent | Women who give birth to the donor’s offspring, by treatment or not, including the donor and any current or former spouse | Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2007, s 27 | A woman who, or whose spouse, is already the parent of a child from the same donor; and classes set by regulation |
| VIC | 10 women | Women with children who are genetic siblings, counting the donor and any current or former partner | Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008, s 29 | Among them, s 29(2): once more than 10 women have such children, treatment of any of them to have a further genetic sibling. The Act sets out the rest. |
| QLD | 10 donor-related Australian families | Families with a person born from an ART procedure carried out in Australia with the same donor’s gametes, and the donor’s own family if the donor has a child born in Australia who was not donor-conceived | Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2024, s 25 | Approval of the chief executive under s 39B |
| WA | No more than 5 recipient families known to the licensee | Recipient families, including families that may be outside Western Australia | Human Reproductive Technology Directions 2021, direction 8.1 (a direction, not the Act) | The Council’s approval (8.1); direction 8.2 lets it approve more than 5 in exceptional circumstances |
| SA, TAS, ACT, NT | Not in these sources | No number in this site’s sources; the NHMRC guidelines, paragraph 5.3, speak to clinics | ||
NSW and Victoria
New South Wales and Victoria count women
New South Wales writes its limit this way:
“An ART provider must not provide ART treatment using a donated gamete if the treatment is likely to result in offspring of the donor being born, whether or not as a result of ART treatment, to more than 5 women (or such lesser number as may be specified in the donor’s consent), including the donor and any current or former spouse of the donor.”
Section 27(1), Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2007 (NSW)
NSW Health adds that the count runs “whether in NSW or elsewhere, including overseas”. The maximum penalty is 800 penalty units for a corporation and 400 in any other case.
Victoria’s section 29 sets 10: a person must not carry out a treatment procedure with a donor’s gametes, or an embryo formed from them, knowing it may lead to more than 10 women, counting the donor and any current or former partner, having children who are genetic siblings. The penalty is 240 penalty units or 2 years’ imprisonment or both.
Queensland and WA
Queensland and Western Australia count families
Queensland’s section 25 stops a provider using a donated gamete or embryo if it “would result in more than 10 donor-related Australian families”, where the provider knew it would, or did not exercise due diligence to find out. For this section, “a family comprises a parent, their spouse (if any) and their children”, and the Act adds that a person with a former spouse, or with more than one spouse, forms a separate family with each of them and their children.
In Western Australia the number is in the Directions, not the Act: direction 8.1 sets “no more than 5 recipient families known to the licensee”, and direction 8.2 lets the Council approve more in exceptional circumstances.
Duty holders
A limit on treatment, not on donors
In each of the four, the duty sits with whoever provides the treatment: the ART provider in New South Wales and Queensland, the person carrying out the procedure in Victoria, the licensee in Western Australia. NSW Health notes that a provider has a defence if it can show it exercised due diligence.
A donor can still shape the number through their consent: New South Wales allows a lower number to be set there, Victoria requires the consent to specify the number of women, and Queensland requires it to state the maximum number of families. The consent guide covers the rest.
NSW exemption
New South Wales’ 2025 exemption
An amended regulation that commenced on 17 October 2025 created a class of women exempt from section 27, NSW Health says, and its exemption page sets out who is in it: each condition turns on what had happened before 1 October 2025. NSW Health adds that the exemption “does not apply to women and families seeking treatment in the future using gametes or embryos not currently in storage or reserved for use by particular women”, and that the usual five-women limit in the Act applies to all future treatment. Before treating a woman in an exempt class, NSW Health says, the provider must tell her that the donor’s offspring may have been born to more than five women.
Other places
South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory
No number for these four appears in this site’s sources. The NHMRC’s guidelines, ethical guidelines for clinics rather than law, say gametes from one donor must be used to create only a limited number of families, and that where no specific state or territory law applies, clinics must weigh:
- how many people have already been born from the donor’s gametes
- the risk of a donor-conceived person unknowingly having a sexual relationship with a close genetic relative, with regard to the population and ethnic group where the donation is used
- any limit on families the donor set in their consent
- whether the donor has already donated at another clinic.
With no national registry for gamete donation, the guidelines also say clinics must ask potential donors whether they have donated elsewhere, and get consent to contact those clinics.
Where a donor’s details are kept is in Donor registers by state; every row sits on the comparison sheet.