Minister promises tighter oversight of sperm banks

Health Minister Ida Auken says Denmark will strengthen oversight of sperm banks after DR reported that European Sperm Bank sold donor sperm to more women than permitted.

“There must be better supervision and much more control over how many children are conceived using the same donor. And, of course, there must be sanctions when the law is broken,” Auken told DR.

She plans to invite health policy spokespeople to negotiations within the next month, with the aim of sending a bill out for consultation before Christmas.

“We are going to tighten the rules across the board,” Auken said.

DR reported last week that European Sperm Bank had sold sperm from 186 donors to more Danish women than permitted under the law or recommendations. In one case, a donor had become the biological parent of 110 Danish children.

The Danish Patient Safety Authority previously told DR that it had used spot checks to monitor whether the sperm bank complied with the limit on the number of women a donor could be used for. The authority can no longer confirm or deny that it carried out those checks.

Several experts have criticised the authority. After being presented with DR’s findings, Auken questioned whether anyone had properly monitored the sperm banks.

“It does not look as though anyone has seriously kept an eye on a sperm bank that could exceed the limits by so much,” she said, adding that supervision would be one area where she intended to tighten the rules.