Experts warn that sperm donated in the UK is being exported and could be used to father large numbers of children in multiple countries, in breach of the UK’s strict limit of 10 families.
A legal loophole means that a single donor in British fertility clinics is restricted to starting more than 10 families, but there are no restrictions on companies providing sperm or eggs for additional fertility treatments abroad.
Now that donor anonymity has been lifted and genetic relatives can be traced through DNA testing sites, there is a good chance that donor children will form relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe.
Prof Jackson Kirkman-Brown, president of the Association for Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS), is among those calling on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to tighten restrictions.
“If you believe that it’s necessary to maintain the 10-family limit in the modern world, then logically that should apply wherever the sperm comes from,” said Kirkman-Brown, who is also director of the Centre for Human Reproductive Science at the University of Birmingham. “There is data that shows that some children who live in really large families struggle with that.”
Until five years ago, the UK was primarily an importer of sperm, mainly from Denmark and the US. But as a growing number of international sperm and egg banks have opened donor centres in the UK, the picture is becoming more complex.
In 2019-21, 7,542 straws of sperm were exported from the UK, according to HFEA data (one IVF cycle typically requires one straw of sperm). The European Sperm Bank, which accounted for 90% of exports, has a global limit of 75 families per donor and estimates that its donors help an average of 25 families.
Cryos, the world’s largest sperm and egg bank, opened a sperm donation unit in Manchester in April and said it was “targeting 25-50 families per donor” globally.
Dr Lucy Frith from the University of Manchester, who researches the experiences of donor-conceived children, said that connecting with biological half-siblings was often viewed positively. “But as the number of siblings started to grow, it felt unmanageable to have contact and relationships with a growing and undefined number of people,” she said. “There are no hard and fast figures about when the number becomes ‘too many’ and it depends on the person, but generally more than 10 was considered a large group.”
The potentially limitless number of future siblings is another challenge. “Once you freeze sperm, it doesn’t age,” Kirkman-Brown said. In theory, a donor could be used for years or even decades. “You could end up with donor siblings who are older than your parents, and that’s not the case yet,” he added.
Others noted that the increasing commercialisation of the market contrasts with the altruistic basis for sperm and egg donation, with UK law allowing only compensation for time and costs.
“It’s presented to donors as a wonderful gift to help someone start a family, not ‘We’re going to maximise the number of births from your gametes and make as much money as possible’,” said Prof Nicky Hudson, a medical sociologist at De Montford University. “When you talk to donors and present them with these options, they’re really surprised.”
Hudson is conducting research into egg donation, which is emerging as a market thanks to advances in egg freezing techniques and could grow further if compensation rises from £750 to £986 in October.
Shipping eggs could open up new frontiers for biological motherhood. “The idea of a father of a lot of children already exists in our cultural imagination,” Hudson added. “We don’t have that for women.”
“Egg donors really, really rejected the idea of their eggs being shipped overseas,” she added. “One told me it was akin to human trafficking.”
The reason for maintaining the limit of 10 families in accredited clinics, according to the HFEA, is that consultation with donors and donor-conceived individuals shows that this is the number that people feel comfortable with in terms of the number of potential donor-conceived children, half-siblings and families that can be created.
“As the HFEA has no jurisdiction over donations outside of HFEA-licensed clinics, there would be no oversight over how often a donor is used in these circumstances,” said Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA.
Others suggested expanding this mandate, similar to the HFEA mandate that foreign donors cannot be anonymous.
“The HFEA is constrained by its legal duties, but it could stipulate that it would only import gametes that meet the UK limit (10 families) outside the UK,” Firth said. “So a donor who donated in another country would take those offspring into account.”
“The HFEA’s position that this is outside their remit is not good enough,” said Sarah Norcross, chief executive of fertility charity Progress Educational Trust. “I’m not against there being more than 10 families if some of them are based outside the UK, but 75, which some of these banks have come up with, is a lot of families. Even if they say we can’t control the number of families abroad, they can insist that number is made available to the recipient.”
Both the European Sperm Bank and Cryos expect to supply the majority of UK sperm to the UK market, based on customer demand.
The European Sperm Bank added: “We are following this topic very closely and are engaging in dialogue with donor children, families and expert groups to gain more insight and a deeper understanding of their wishes and concerns.”