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Sperm From a donor who unknowingly carried a gene that increases cancer risk used to conceive about 200 Children All over Europe.
a major Investigation revealed Sperm Some but not all UK clinics were sold Family used sperm while fertility treatment in Denmark.
Some? Children already dead and many more with genes Cancer will continue to develop throughout your lifetime.
Denmark’s European Sperm Bank has acknowledged that the sperm was used have lots of kids and sent his “deepest sympathies” Family Affected It is understood that all the information has been given to the women.
Investigation Organized by 14 public service broadcasters, including the BBC, as part of the European Broadcasting Union’s Investigative Journalism Network.
The BBC reported that the man was paid to donate sperm while he was a student and that his sperm was used for about 17 years.
Although he was healthy and passed all the screening tests, there were changes in his DNA, which meant that the TP53 gene – which has a key role in preventing the body’s cells from becoming cancerous – was damaged.
The affected gene is not in every part of the donor’s body, but it is in 20 percent of his sperm.
This means any children she gives birth to will have the gene mutated throughout their bodies – a condition known as Li-Fraumeni syndrome.
The risk of developing cancer before the age of 60 increases to 90 percent in people with this syndrome.
This includes breast cancer, brain tumors, osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma and childhood cancers.
According to an article by the National Institutes of Health in the US, Li-Fraumeni is a “rare syndrome”, stating that there are likely more than 1,000 multi-generational families with this syndrome worldwide.
Affected people are regularly monitored to look for tumors.
The European Sperm Bank said the mutation could not be detected in screening and that it had “immediately blocked” the donor after discovering the problem.
Doctors raised concerns at this year’s European Society of Human Genetics. He found this type of disease in 23 out of 67 children known at that time. Ten had already been diagnosed with cancer.
The BBC reported that at least 197 children were affected, but noted that data had not been obtained from all countries, so the figure could be higher.
The sperm was used by 67 fertility clinics in 14 countries.
In the UK, sperm from one donor can only be used to have a child in one in 10 families.
But the limits are different in different countries.
The HFEA confirmed that the sperm was not distributed to licensed UK clinics.
HFEA Chief Executive Peter Thompson said: “We can confirm that the Danish Patient Safety Authority has informed us that a small number of UK women have been treated in Danish fertility clinics with this sperm donor.
“We understand that they have been informed about the donor by the Danish clinic where they were treated. As the UK regulator, we only collect or hold information about treatment that took place in the UK. As the treatment took place in a Danish clinic, further inquiries should be directed to the competent authority in Denmark.”