At least 85 sperm donors in Netherlands have fathered over 25 children
Since 2004, there have been at least 85 sperm donors who have conceived more than 25 children in the Netherlands. This figure comes from the professional association of gynecologists NVOG, which has been working on a retroactive national register for sperm donors since the Donor Data (Artificial Insemination) Act was tightened on April 1, Nieuwsuur reports.
Before, donor data was registered per clinic. Now the data will be included in a national registry dating back to 2004 - the year when the Netherlands banned anonymous sperm donation.
“We now know for the first time the number of offspring per donor in the Netherlands,” gynaecologist Marieke Schoonenberg told Nieuwsuur on behalf of the NVOG. There are at least 85 mass donors active in the Netherlands. Most of them have conceived “26 to 40 children” with “a few outliers of up to 50 or even 75 children per donor,” she said.
A sperm donor is considered a mass donor if he has more than 25 offspring. Until 2018, that was the maximum number of children allowed per donor according to the NVOG guideline. In 2018, the guideline was adjusted to a maximum of 12 families per donor.
The national register shows that fertility clinics have not adhered to these agreements. Donors could donate at multiple clinics without setting off alarms anywhere in the registration system. Some clinics deliberately used the same donor more than 25 times, without the consent of the donor and the mothers involved. And clinics exchanged donor sperm among themselves without the donor’s knowledge and without clear registration.
The NVOG urges mothers, children conceived through sperm donation, and sperm donors to contact the fertility clinic they worked with if they have concerns or want more information. “The number of mass donors in the clinics should have been zero,” Schoonbergen said. “We want to offer our apologies on behalf of the professional group. We did not do this right.”
Ties van der Meer of Stichting Donorkind, the foundation that fights for the interests of children conceived through sperm donation, was shocked by the number of mass donors. “That quickly amounts to 3,000 children involved, with over 25 half-brothers and half-sisters,” he told the current affairs program. He called the fertility doctors’ actions unbelievable, saying they damaged trust in the medical system and the government that allowed it to happen.
Van der Meer also expects more stress and problems for donor children in daily life. “The donor children involved can never date carefree. If they get into a relationship, they will always have to do a DNA test first to rule out that they are involved with a family member,” he said. Many will also have to maintain contact with many more half-siblings than expected. Van der Meer spoke of “a medical calamity.”
The government tightened the law for sperm donors after several cases involving fertility doctors using their own sperm. Doctors like Jan Wildschut and Jan Karbaat fathered dozens of children with their own sperm in the 1980s and 1990s.
More recently, multiple cases of traveling mass donors with over 100 offspring, such as Ed Houben and Johathan Meijer, have also made headlines.
