European Sperm Bank donor fathered 110 Danish children

One donor has fathered 110 children in Denmark through European Sperm Bank, DR reports, as the sperm bank faces criticism over multiple cases of donor sperm being sold beyond Danish limits.

DR has revealed that sperm from 81 donors was sold to more women than permitted under Danish law. The cases have been reported to the police.

The Danish Patient Safety Authority also found that 105 donors recruited before 2013 were used more extensively than allowed under the recommendations that applied to donors at the time. Those cases do not constitute breaches of the law, but they exceeded an advisory limit.

There are two sets of rules for the use of donor sperm in Denmark, depending on when the donor was recruited. For donors recruited before March 2013, the legal limit was 12 women resident in Denmark. For donors recruited after March 2013, the advisory limit was 25 children resulting from treatment in Denmark.

The donor with 110 Danish children was recruited before 2013. According to the article, the donor therefore has more than four times as many Danish children as the recommended limit of 25.

“It is a huge breach of trust,” said Anna Luna Carlsen, who used European Sperm Bank when she became the mother of her son, Otto.

Carlsen, 36, said she chose the company because it had a good reputation and was recommended in several social media groups. She has since lost confidence in the Danish company.

She is particularly concerned that her son could fall in love with a half-sibling. She said she did not know whether he had 10, 20 or 100 half-siblings, and that the donor could have even more children abroad. The documents obtained by European Sperm Bank only show the number of children in Denmark.

Carlsen previously asked European Sperm Bank how many half-siblings her son had, but the sperm bank told her it could not provide that information.

Bente Boserup, chair of the Danish Children’s Council, said the state should ensure that all affected families are contacted.

“Private actors have not been able to protect the children. Therefore, the state must step in,” she said, adding that Parliament should determine how the situation can be resolved and ensure that children’s right to know their origins is protected.

Neither European Sperm Bank nor the Danish Patient Safety Authority has contacted the affected children and families who used an oversold donor, according to the article.

Carlsen said the affected parties must be contacted. Otherwise, she said, everyone who has used European Sperm Bank would be left wondering whether they were affected.

European Sperm Bank declined to give an interview but responded in writing to DR. The company said it understood the desire to know the total number of families who had children with the same donor, but that the information constituted personal data about the donor under the assessment of the Danish Data Protection Agency and therefore could not be disclosed.

The Danish Data Protection Agency told DR that it had not specifically determined whether the number of children was personal data about the donor-conceived child and whether the child therefore had a right to receive the information. It said it could not comment further because of pending cases.