A woman who was conceived through sperm donation has won the right to proceed with a lawsuit aimed at getting information about the donor.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge Friday rejected a bid by the provincial government to block a lawsuit filed by Olivia Pratten.

Pratten, who was born in B.C. but now lives in Toronto and works for The Canadian Press, wants B.C. to ensure sperm donor records are kept indefinitely.

She also wants to prevent existing records from being destroyed, effectively making it impossible for donors to remain anonymous.

Pratten launched the lawsuit after fighting for more than a decade to obtain records about her conception, arguing such information is vital to her own health and to ease the psychological stress of not knowing who her biological father is.

The doctor who performed the procedure for Pratten's mother has said he destroyed the documents in the 1990s because physicians aren't required to keep patient records for more than six years.

Pratten, 28, and her mother don't believe the documents were actually destroyed, pointing to what they say are inconsistencies in what the now-retired doctor told them.

The province had argued because the records surrounding Pratten's case no longer exist, there would be no point for the court to consider whether to order them returned and proceed with a trial.

A government lawyer also said because Pratten wouldn't be affected by any order setting up a database of sperm-donor records, she doesn't have the right to bring forward a case on behalf of other donor children.

But Justice Miriam Gropper disagreed, ruling the issues Pratten raised are "not moot, academic or futile."

"I am satisfied that Ms. Pratten has public interest standing, and potentially direct interest standing, in the event that the records she seeks do exist," Gropper said in her ruling.

"She has satisfied me that there is a serious issue to be tried; that her position that the province has failed to enact protective legislation in respect of gamete donors is one which affects Ms. Pratten directly or she has a genuine interest in protecting."

Reached by phone, Pratten said she's ecstatic the case will proceed to trial Oct. 25. It's expected to be heard for two weeks.

"I'm very thrilled," she said. "We didn't think that it was going to be thrown out. We thought that we had quite a strong argument."

Extensive work has been done at the federal level to legislate assisted reproduction, including a royal commission in the 1990s and the introduction of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act in 2004. That legislation prevents donors' health records from being destroyed, but still allows donors to remain anonymous.

The Quebec government challenged the law, taking it to the Supreme Court of Canada, arguing it treads on provincial jurisdiction, but the top court has yet to rule.

Pratten said even the updated federal and provincial rules don't go far enough because they still allow for anonymous donation. More importantly, she said, they don't help children who were born before they took effect.

Pratten has long been an advocate for the rights of donor children, having testified several times at Senate and Commons committees in Ottawa and appearing at numerous fertility and reproduction conferences.

She said her parents told her how she was conceived at a very young age, and they are supportive of her court challenge.