Sperm donated in the UK is being exported and can be used to create large numbers of children across multiple countries, contradicting a strict 10-family limit that applies in the UK, experts warn.
A legal loophole means that, while a single donor can be used to create no more than 10 families in UK fertility clinics, there are no restrictions on companies making sperm or eggs available for additional fertility treatments abroad.
With the lifting of donor anonymity and the ability to track down genetic relatives on DNA testing sites, this raises the prospect of some donor-conceived children navigating relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe.
Prof Jackson Kirkman-Brown, chair 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 enforce the 10-family limit in the modern world then logically that should apply wherever the sperm are from,” said Kirkman-Brown, who is also director of the Centre for Human Reproductive Science at the University of Birmingham. “There is data showing that some of the children who find the really big families struggle with that.”
Until five years ago, the UK was primarily an importer of sperm, largely 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.
From 2019-21, 7,542 straws of sperm were exported from the UK, according to data provided by the HFEA (one IVF cycle typically requires one straw of sperm). The European Sperm Bank, which accounted for 90% of exports, applies a worldwide limit of 75 families a donor and estimates that its donors help on average 25 families.
Cryos, the world’s largest sperm and egg bank, which opened a sperm donation unit in Manchester in April, said it “aims for 25-50 families per donor” worldwide.
Prof Lucy Frith, of the University of Manchester, who is researching donor-conceived experiences, says that making contact with biological half-siblings is often viewed positively. “But when numbers of siblings began to grow [it] felt unmanageable to have contact and relationships with a growing and indeterminate number of people,” she said. “There are no hard and fast figures of when the number becomes ‘too much’ and this depends on individuals, but generally over 10 was felt to be a large group.”
The potentially open-ended number of future siblings is another challenge. “Once you’ve frozen sperm it doesn’t get any older,” said Kirkman-Brown. In theory, a donor could continue to be used over years or even decades. “You can end up with donor siblings older than your parents, which is not somewhere we’ve been yet,” he added.
Others noted that the increasing commercialisation of the market contrasts with the altruistic basis for donation of sperm and eggs, with the UK law only allowing compensation for time and expenses.
“It’s presented to donors as a beautiful gift to help someone create a family, not as, ‘We’re going to maximise the number of births from your gametes and make as much money as we can from that,’” said Prof Nicky Hudson, a medical sociologist at De Montford University. “When you speak to donors and present these possibilities to them, they’re really surprised.”
Hudson is researching egg donation, which is emerging as a new market thanks to advances in egg freezing techniques and could expand further when compensation increases from £750 to £986 in October.
The shipping of eggs could open new frontiers for biological motherhood. “The idea of a dad to loads of children already exists in our cultural imagination,” Hudson added. “We don’t have that for women.”
“Egg donors really strongly rejected the idea of their eggs being shipped abroad,” she added. “One told me it’s akin to human trafficking.”
The rationale for enforcing the 10-family limit across licensed clinics, according to the HFEA, is that consultation with donors and donor-conceived people suggests this is the number people feel comfortable with in terms of the numbers of potential donor-conceived children, half-siblings and families that might be created.
“As the HFEA has no remit over donation outside of HFEA licensed clinics, there would be no monitoring of how many times a donor is used in these circumstances,” said Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA.
Others suggested that this remit could be expanded, in a comparable way to the HFEA’s mandate that overseas donors cannot be anonymous.
“The HFEA is limited by its statutory duties, but it could stipulate that it will only import gametes that meet the UK limit (10 families), outside the UK,” said Frith. “So a donor who has donated in another country would have those offspring taken into account.”
“The HFEA’s position that this is outside its remit is not good enough,” said Sarah Norcross, director of the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust. “I’m not against there being more than 10 families if some are outside the UK, but 75, which some of these banks have alighted on, is a heck of a lot of relatives. Even if they say we can’t control the number of families abroad, they could insist that the number is made available to the recipient.”
Both the European Sperm Bank and Cryos said they expect to supply most of the UK sperm to the UK market, based on customer demand.
The European Sperm Bank added: “We follow this topic very closely and engage in dialogue with both donor-conceived individuals, families and expert groups to get more insights and a deeper understanding of their wishes and concerns.”
