Several Danish sperm banks reported to police, minister says

Several Danish sperm banks have been reported to police, Health and Church Minister Ida Auken told DR, after revelations that donor sperm was sold illegally to too many women.

DR reported that the European Sperm Bank was reported by the Danish Patient Safety Authority for selling sperm from 81 donors to an unlawful number of Danish women since 2013. Auken said it was not the only police report.

“There has been so much disorder at the sperm banks. I wonder whether it has almost been the Wild West. At least, they have behaved that way,” Auken said.

She said there had been “serious violations at some of the sperm banks” and promised that the sector would now be examined closely.

“This is not acceptable, and that is also why police reports have been filed,” Auken said.

DR was unable to obtain details from the Ministry of Health about which other sperm banks had been reported or why. The ministry declined to provide further information.

In the European Sperm Bank case, Danish rules state that sperm from one donor may be used by no more than 12 women in Denmark. However, donors from the bank have been used by up to 30 Danish women since 2013.

A further 105 donors from the bank were used in breach of an earlier recommendation that limited each donor to 25 children.

“I have been surprised by how much this area had been allowed to drift in the past,” Auken said.

“You cannot always prevent bad actors, but at least the clean-up is now under way,” she added.

Auken is awaiting the completion of a review of the entire fertility sector by the Danish Patient Safety Authority. The review was launched in December last year after DR published several reports about a European Sperm Bank donor who unknowingly passed on a cancer gene to some of the approximately 200 children he had fathered worldwide, including 44 in Denmark.

“When the review is completed, we will assess whether the legislation and supervision need to be strengthened,” Auken said.

The European Sperm Bank told DR that police had not contacted it and that it knew about the police report only from media coverage. The bank said it therefore had no basis for commenting further.

The bank said systems in the fertility sector had previously been inadequate, but that the situation had improved. It said it now had “very robust and secure control mechanisms” and that, among donors used in Denmark and recruited since 2020, it had registered one breach of the family limit.

In a longer written response, the bank said some donors had exceeded family limits in Denmark, as it reported in 2025. It said it understood the concern and uncertainty this could cause donors, families and donor-conceived children, and that it wanted to help restore trust.