Filenews 9 July 2025 - by Marilena Panagi
An end to the "super donors" of sperm and eggs with hundreds of children across Europe are attempting to get six European countries with Cyprus supporting the relevant proposal that has already been presented and analyzed at the last meeting of European health ministers.
The reason for the intervention of the six countries (Sweden, Belgium, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain) was the cases that have seen the light of day in recent months and mainly concerned male donors who acquired hundreds of children in different countries after sperm donation.
The case of a Dutchman who allegedly has more than 550 children and a second man who is rumoured to have had more than 100 children through sperm donation is also known.
The proposal was presented at the meeting of EU health ministers in Luxembourg by Sweden and Belgium with the aim of creating the conditions for setting limits on donations that a donor can proceed with. In fact, during the presentation, it was emphasized that although in several European countries, such as Sweden (and Cyprus) there are already national limits on how many children can be born from a donor, at the international level there is currently no corresponding framework.
It was also reported that some sperm banks have voluntarily set caps, such as up to 75 families per donor, but again there is no common, international practice, resulting in dozens or even hundreds of half-siblings in various parts of the world.
"We urgently need a common European quota and a single donor register at EU level to respect the limits in practice," the Belgian health minister said, saying that "it is inconceivable that children and parents learn through DNA testing that they have 70 or more half-siblings. This is immoral and dangerous."
The European Commission is currently reluctant to accept the proposal, but according to what has come to light in European media, the Commission has committed to convene the relevant national authorities for a discussion.
As far as Cyprus is concerned, the legislation, due to the small size of the population, allows only one family per donor. However, the fact that there is sperm and egg mobility between the Custody Banks, the probability of a number of children being born by the same father/mother is still high.
As far as other countries are concerned, in the United Kingdom, Greece and France the maximum limit is 10 families per donor. In Denmark, 12 families, in the Netherlands there is a possibility for 25 children per donor, in Germany for 15 children and in Sweden for six.
The Cypriot Ministry of Health seems to support harmonisation of the regulations so that they apply to all Member States and proposes the establishment of a single threshold, i.e. the setting of a maximum number of families or children per donor at European level, the creation of a pan-European register of donors and descendants to prevent exceeding the limits, the implementation of stricter genetic testing to avoid the transmission of hereditary diseases and the provision of psychological support to donors, descendants and families to deal with the emotional and social impact.
