The sperm of a man from Denmark with a dangerous mutated gene has been used on two women who now live in the Netherlands. They had children with the donor’s sperm through treatments at a Belgian clinic.
At the Belgian clinic, the sperm of the Danish donor was used to conceive 53 children, 51 of whom were born. This happened to 37 women, 14 of whom live in Belgium. Of the remaining women, 17 live in France, one in Germany, one in Italy, one in South America, and thus two in the Netherlands.
The news was announced on Wednesday by Frank Vandenbroucke, the Belgian Minister of Public Health. It is not yet known whether the women who live in the Netherlands have Dutch nationality.
Two weeks ago, it became clear that the sperm of the Danish man had been used to conceive 67 children in Europe. His rare hereditary mutation significantly increases the risk of cancer. The mutation has been found in 23 children. Cancer has been diagnosed in ten of them, including leukemia and lymphoma.
At the end of May, the Dutch Ministry of Public Health said that the donor’s sperm was probably not used in the Netherlands. State Secretary Vincent Karremans of Youth, Sport and Prevention is kept informed by the Dutch Association for Obstetrics and Gynecology (NVOG) if the sperm is used in the Netherlands after all.
According to The Guardian, the case came to light when two families contacted their fertility clinic. When the man donated his sperm in 2008, it was not yet known that this mutation increases the risk of cancer, according to the British medium.