European sperm donor scandal: 52 children in Belgium born to donor with cancer gene

A Danish donor at one of Europe’s leading sperm banks, whose sperm was used to conceive at least 67 children, most of them in Belgium, has been found to carry a cancer-causing gene.

The donor’s sperm was used to conceive 52 children in Belgium between 2008 and 2017, RTBF reports, and 10 cases of cancer have already been diagnosed across Europe, with no specific numbers yet available for the Belgian children.

Belgian health minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) said he was only informed of the matter a few days ago, though the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AFMPS) was alerted as soon as the first reports emerged in 2023.

French biologist Edwige Kasper and colleagues at Rouen University Hospital have been working to track down the affected children, now between the ages of eight and 17.

Between a lack of follow-up and the absence of a framework to enforce Belgian legislation, the scandal has raised a number of ethical questions.

The TP53 gene mutation that the Danish sperm donor carries is associated with Li–Fraumeni syndrome, which can cause a large number of cancers. The syndrome is very rare, affecting between one in 3,500 and one in 5,000 births.

Details of the scandal emerged after two children from two different families in Denmark were diagnosed with cancer. Tests detected the presence of the gene mutation in both children.

The donor himself is said to be in good health and has not developed cancer - nor does he have a family history associated with the syndrome.

He registered with the European Sperm Bank, a private centre based in Copenhagen that exports gametes throughout Europe, which blocked him from the sperm bank after the link to the cancer-causing genome was discovered.

But because the Danish sperm bank sets a global limit of 75 families for each sperm donor, there is a high probability that there are more than the 67 children already identified are affected in Europe.

In November 2023, 14 Belgian centres were determined to have received sperm from the Danish donor. In 12 of the centres, the sperm was used in several fertilisation procedures, which in turn had led to 52 births from 37 women.

But in Belgium, the law stipulates that the same donor can be assigned to a maximum of six women.

Vandenbroucke said there was no control system in place at the time of the fertilisation procedures: the law existed, but there was no framework to enforce it. As a result, the centres had no way of checking whether another centre had already used a donor’s sperm.

A database to centralise sperm donations has been operational since 1 January 2024 – “14 years too late,” Vandenbroucke said.

Vandenbroucke also voiced concern for how the 37 affected Belgian families would be notified.

“It’s not enough to ask fertility centres to organise the action and ensure that they do so,” said Vandenbroucke.

“It’s not enough to inform women individually. That has been done. I believe that these women should also be told that there are 52 cases, which is obviously extremely sensitive and painful information… I believe that in such a context and given the number of families affected, feedback on the results is also necessary.”

The case of the Danish donor is not the first of its kind.

The limit of six women per sperm donor in Belgium was not respected in at least 22 known cases since 2022.

Dozens of families are affected, and possibly hundreds, due to the lack of a control system or database until recent years.

Prior to this, fertility clinics had no way of checking whether a donor's sperm had already been used in other centres in Belgium, meaning the six-woman rule could not be effectively applied at national level.

At best, the centres could apply the rule internally, but there are also at least three centres with cases where the limit was exceeded at centre level.

In one of them, sperm from the same donor was used to impregnate up to 10 women, who gave birth to 17 children.

Centres that fail to comply with the legislation in force are liable to sanctions, which may include closure of the centre. Infringements may also lead to criminal prosecution, so long as the case is less than 10 years old.