Spanish
A sperm bank from Denmark has sold semen from the same donor, who carries a potentially deadly cancer gene and with whom at least 197 babies have been conceived in fourteen European countries, according to an investigation by the European Broadcasting Union's (EBU) Investigative Journalism Network published this Wednesday.
This is 'donor 7069' or 'Kjeld', a student who began donating sperm in 2005 at the Copenhagen headquarters of the European Sperm Bank (ESB), after passing all the medical examinations of the time.
The gametes of 'Kjeld' were sold between 2006 and 2023 to 67 fertility clinics across Europe, despite the limits in some countries on the number of births per donor because there is no international regulation to limit it, according to this research published in several European media, including the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.
In Spain, the sperm of 'donor 7069' was sold to four clinics and the authorities have confirmed that it has been used to conceive 35 children -ten from Spanish families and 25 from women who traveled from abroad for treatment-, despite the fact that Spanish law limits to six families per donor. Three of these children conceived in Spain have tested positive for the mutation and one of them is already sick, according to the research. The country where the sperm of 'donor 7069' has fathered the most children is the Netherlands, where 49 babies were conceived up to 2013, when the recommendation was issued to limit to 25 the women who should be inseminated with the same sperm. It has also been detected that it was used to conceive 50 children in women not residing in the country. In Belgium, where the alarms had already been raised a few months ago, there are a total of 53 babies from this sperm, which exceeds the limit of six families per donor imposed by Belgian law. The Belgian Public Prosecutor's Office announced in September that it would open an investigation into the fertility clinic of the University Hospital of Brussels (UZ Brussel) after the scandal broke. Seven clinics in Greece received the sperm, although Greek authorities have not provided data to the EBU's Investigative Journalism Network on how many children may have been born. A Greek doctor assured the media that three children from the same family conceived by in vitro fertilization have the TP53 mutation and one of them already has cancer. Sperm also reached three clinics in Germany, where two children were born and one of them is sick, and centers in Ireland, Poland, Albania, and Kosovo, where no children were born. There are also reports that it was sold in Cyprus, Georgia, Hungary, and North Macedonia. The European Sperm Bank has acknowledged in a statement that limits have been exceeded in some countries, although it attributes this to "inadequate information from clinics, non-robust systems and fertility tourism".
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In 2023, its use was blocked after a "new and potentially deadly genetic alteration" was discovered in the sample, a pathology derived from the TP53 mutation, which is Li Fraumeni syndrome, a disease that predisposes the carrier to "develop different types of cancer throughout their life," according to Ann-Kathrin Klym, head of the Laboratory of the Berliner Samenbank sperm bank, cited by RTVE. This genetic alteration was impossible to detect in 2005, as it was present in a very low percentage of sperm cells, but by November 2023 it had already been implanted in dozens of women throughout Europe and there are already children with cancer and even, according to a doctor cited by the investigation, some "have already died". "We have children who have already developed two types of cancer and some of them have already died at a very young age," said Edwige Kasper, a researcher at the University of Rouen in this European network, in an interview with Danish public television DR, where she asks that all the offspring of this donor be found for medical follow-up, although the total number is not yet known. At least 35 children in SpainIn Spain, the sperm of 'donor 7069' was sold to four clinics and the authorities have confirmed that it has been used to conceive 35 children -ten from Spanish families and 25 from women who traveled from abroad for treatment-, despite the fact that Spanish law limits to six families per donor. Three of these children conceived in Spain have tested positive for the mutation and one of them is already sick, according to the research. The country where the sperm of 'donor 7069' has fathered the most children is the Netherlands, where 49 babies were conceived up to 2013, when the recommendation was issued to limit to 25 the women who should be inseminated with the same sperm. It has also been detected that it was used to conceive 50 children in women not residing in the country. In Belgium, where the alarms had already been raised a few months ago, there are a total of 53 babies from this sperm, which exceeds the limit of six families per donor imposed by Belgian law. The Belgian Public Prosecutor's Office announced in September that it would open an investigation into the fertility clinic of the University Hospital of Brussels (UZ Brussel) after the scandal broke. Seven clinics in Greece received the sperm, although Greek authorities have not provided data to the EBU's Investigative Journalism Network on how many children may have been born. A Greek doctor assured the media that three children from the same family conceived by in vitro fertilization have the TP53 mutation and one of them already has cancer. Sperm also reached three clinics in Germany, where two children were born and one of them is sick, and centers in Ireland, Poland, Albania, and Kosovo, where no children were born. There are also reports that it was sold in Cyprus, Georgia, Hungary, and North Macedonia. The European Sperm Bank has acknowledged in a statement that limits have been exceeded in some countries, although it attributes this to "inadequate information from clinics, non-robust systems and fertility tourism".
