The FAGG, the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products, has asked the public prosecutor's office to investigate the donor scandal at two Belgian fertility centres. Flouting of the rules regarding sperm donation are raising many questions.
Last Tuesday, British newspaper the Guardian revealed that dozens of children across Europe were conceived with the sperm of a Danish donor who passed on a cancer-causing gene.
Belgium too was affected. Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Flemish socialist Vooruit) announced last Friday that 52 children in 37 families in Belgium have been conceived between 2008 and 2017 with sperm from the Danish donor.
Yesterday, it emerged that the real figure was actually 53 children. 2 women miscarried, meaning 51 children were eventually born after fertilisation by the Dane's sperm. It also turns out that of the 37 families, “only” 14 live in Belgium.
What happened exceeded the legal limit of six women per donor. Moreover, it turned out not to be an isolated case: the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products was aware of at least 22 other cases.
Generally speaking, in Belgium, any healthy male, aged between 18 and 45, is eligible to donate, although there may be specific conditions depending on the centre. Before you can donate, some health tests happen. Donors are not paid but do receive an expense allowance.
But because there are too few donors in Belgium, centres call on sperm from abroad, especially from Denmark.
How many donor children are there Belgium?
We don't know, because in the early years this was not or not correctly recorded. Scientists estimate that in recent years the figure is about 1,000 children a year.
That estimate only refers to the number of donor children born with the help of 1 of the 18 Belgian fertility clinics. The number of sperm donations in a private context or abroad, is unclear.
In 2007 the “6-woman rule” was introduced to avoid donor children having many half-brothers or sisters.
The same law also stipulated the creation of a national donor register so that the number of children per donor could be tracked across different centres. That database - Fertidata - was 17 years in the making, only coming online in early 2024.
Women are allowed to use sperm from the same donor without any limit.