August M
A major cross-border investigation has uncovered how a sperm donor carrying an undetected cancer-causing mutation fathered at least 197 children across Europe.
As families absorb the news, doctors warn that only a minority of affected children will escape cancer during their lifetimes.
The discovery has raised urgent questions about oversight, screening and the global trade in donor sperm.
Human cost emerges
The probe, conducted by 14 European public broadcasters including the BBC, found the donor unknowingly carried a mutation in TP53 — a gene that prevents cells from becoming cancerous.
While most of his body is unaffected, up to 20% of his sperm contains the dangerous variant, which causes Li-Fraumeni syndrome and brings up to a 90% lifetime cancer risk.
Some children have already died. Doctors across Europe reported rising cases at a genetics conference this year, with 23 of the first 67 known children carrying the mutation and ten already diagnosed with cancer.
Families blindsided
According to the BBC, the donor—who began giving sperm in 2005 as a student—passed routine screening. Denmark’s European Sperm Bank said the mutation is not detectable through preventive tests and expressed its “deepest sympathy” for affected families.
It confirmed the donor was blocked immediately after the issue surfaced.
One French mother, identified as Céline, learned her daughter — conceived 14 years ago via a Belgian clinic — carried the mutation.
She called it unacceptable that she received sperm that “wasn’t clean, that wasn’t safe,” but said she held “no hard feelings” toward the donor.
Calls for tighter controls
Specialists argue that stricter global limits could reduce psychological harm for donor-conceived children who later discover hundreds of half-siblings.
Sarah Norcross of the Progress Educational Trust said: “More needs to be done to reduce the number of families that are born globally from the same donors.”
Yet experts stress that such cases remain rare and that licensed clinics still offer the safest route, with far more screening than most prospective parents receive themselves, the BBC reports.
Sources: BBC
