Dutch Lower House wants better control of sperm donation
A test tube with sperm. Photo AFP, Yuichi Yamazaki
Western Europe
A father with hundreds of children? That should no longer be possible via loopholes in the law if it is up to the Dutch cabinet. To that end, they want to change the law.
Dutch Health Minister Kuipers pleads for improvement of the Law Donor Data Artificial Fertilisation that dates from 2004. The Lower House agrees, the Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad reports.
Efficient
One of the loopholes in the current legislation is the lack of control over sperm donations and fertilisations. Since 1991, fertility clinics have had a guideline that advises no more than 25 children per donor. However, there is no efficient registration system to check whether a donor has already fathered 25 children in other clinics.
In practice, that meant that sperm donors could easily father more than 25 children. Recently, news broke that the Dutch Jonathan M. probably has hundreds of children. These high numbers increase the risk of inbreeding when the children grow up and get married without knowing who their half-siblings are.
Mandatory
Now, Minister Kuipers wants to establish a mandatory database for clinics. In addition, donors are allowed to give sperm to twelve women at the max. He reasons that donors will, therefore, not father more than 25 children, as women get two children on average.
Two Christian parties, SGP and Christian Union, pleaded for the inclusion of the number of 25 into the new law. According to them, this would have a psychological and pedagogical impact on society. However, Minister Kuipers pointed out that the implementation of this is impossible. He explained that rules, specifically for sperm donors themselves, cannot be enforced, as that would require checks outside the clinics too.
Online
In addition, Minister Kuipers proposed a new regulation for donor children whose fathers changed their minds about anonymity. If it is up to the Minister, donors who at first agreed to reveal their identity when the child requested so will have to do so, even if they changed their mind.
In practice, laws on sperm donation may be very hard to enforce. As sperm donors can go abroad to offer their sperm to foreign clinics, a registration duty would need to be implemented internationally to be effective. In addition, several sperm donors sell their seed online without the involvement of an official fertility clinic.
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