Major concerns about too many offspring of sperm donors by European Sperm Bank to the Netherlands
Donate sperm every 48 hours
As a sperm donor and intended mother, the Research Bureau investigated the European Sperm Bank and was referred for an anonymous sperm donor from ESB to Belgium, Spain or, where the use of anonymous donors is possible. It also became clear that a donor at the European Sperm Bank may donate sperm every 48 hours, and that the donor may also father a sperm donor worldwide in more families than has been agreed in the Netherlands. The European Sperm Bank writes on its website that sperm donors are not used for more than 25 Dutch families, in the Netherlands the guideline is twelve families per donor.
The foundations are concerned about the number of children per sperm donor worldwide. Ellen Giepmans, director of Fiom wonders whether there is any legitimacy for the opening and working method of this commercial Danish sperm bank in the Netherlands.
“The arrival of the European Sperm Bank is shocking and worrying, because in some countries there is no limit on the number of descendants”, says Ties van der Meer of the Donorkind Foundation. Ellen Giepmans: “We have learned a lot in the Netherlands, but the arrival of the European Sperm Bank will open the doors that we have just closed.”
The result can be seen from Fiom and the Donorkind Foundation, that the risk of far too many offspring from one sperm donor becomes too great. “Many half-brothers and half-sisters worldwide cause a lot of discomfort,” says Van der Meer. “And certainly if donor children have also been conceived abroad, this can lead to problems. What if two donor children have a relationship and children? You really shouldn’t want that.”