Hannah Devlin
Sun, 18 August 2024
Emma Dine: ‘In seven years I’ve gone from one [half-sibling] to 25.’Photograph: Dimitris Legakis/Athena Pictures
Experts have warned that sperm donated in the UK is being exported and used to create large numbers of children across multiple countries, contradicting a strict 10-family limit that applies in the UK.
A legal loophole means that while a single donor can be used to create no more than 10 families in UK fertility clinics, there are no restrictions on companies making sperm or eggs available for additional fertility treatments abroad. The Guardian talked to the people affected.
Emma Dine, south Wales
Dine, 36, learned she was donor conceived at the age of 10. She had wanted to reconnect with the man she believed to be her biological father, who had left the family home when she was three years old. But her mother revealed that her biological father was, in fact, an anonymous sperm donor.
“It was one of my life’s missions to find my biological father.” Dine eventually tracked him down through DNA testing websites. In the process, she also matched with 25 half-siblings.
“I do little maths scenarios in my head,” says Dine. “About 5% of the UK population is on Ancestry.com. If we’ve identified 25 siblings on there alone – there’s going to be variables, but if you just directly extrapolate it, you’re looking at 500. Even if you take that down by a degree of magnitude, it makes me uncomfortable.”
She initially worried the donor would be put off wanting to establish a relationship when he became aware of how many biological children were out there. But he and his wife have been open and welcoming and Dine says they have an uncanny amount in common; they own the same breed of dog and are both runners.
However, the steady accumulation of genetic half-siblings has, at times, felt overwhelming. “I matched with my first half-brother Sam back in 2017. In seven years I’ve gone from one to 25.”
She worried about the possibility of inadvertently forming a romantic connection with a blood relative and as a result says she has leaned towards dating men who are not from the UK. And discovering she is one of a large number of half-siblings has affected her sense of identity. “You hear about people’s parents meeting at Glastonbury. This isn’t very glamorous or romantic and the numbers add to that feeling. It does make you feel a bit mass-produced.”
Grace Halden, London
Halden is a solo mother by choice and used donor sperm to conceive twin daughters, who were born in 2019. Halden, who is a senior lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, has a professional background in bioethics but says she was unaware of the possibility of her donor’s sperm being exported. “I selected a UK donor that I believed would be used for a maximum of 10 families. Everybody makes different decisions, but for me I wanted to keep the donor sibling pool as small as I could within my control.”
When she revisited her donor’s profile page some time after her daughters’ birth, however, she was alarmed to see a note stating “export only”. “I was blindsided. I felt as if I perhaps wouldn’t have made the decision I’d made if I’d thought exportation was an option.”
When she contacted the clinic, she was referred to the terms and conditions of the consent forms she had signed. “Sure enough, it was buried in there,” she said. After raising the issue on a local social media group, she realised others were making similar discoveries.
Halden has since been reassured that in her case, the donor’s sperm will not be exported and says the sperm bank has responded positively after she raised the issue. However, she is concerned there is a wider lack of transparency.
“Yes, it’s a business, but they’re in the business of creating people. The priority must always be the children who are created.”
Kevin Moore, Wiltshire
Moore, 39, is donor conceived and also a sperm donor. Now based in Wiltshire, Moore is originally from Florida, where, “in the 80s, when I was born, they didn’t keep on top of records”.
He is on a WhatsApp group with seven of his donor half-siblings, but says he has no idea of the total number. “There are a lot of stories coming out of the States with these huge family gatherings.”
With each addition it is harder to form a meaningful connection, he has found. “It’s just hard to establish a relationship with someone every year, every two years,” he said. “You have to go through the same life story … I’m like, ‘Not again.’”
Moore is also a sperm donor and has at least 14 biological children, based on the figure provided five years ago by the HFEA, the UK’s fertility regulator. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s quite a lot.’ That’s where I think the 10 family limit feels a bit heavier. Even now, because there’s no limit within families, I could have 20 plus. That’s kind of intense.”
So far, the mother of one of his biological children – a 12-year-old girl – has been in touch. “As a first experience it was very respectful and nice,” he said, but it came at a time when he needed to support his own parents in the US who were having health problems. “You don’t know if and when they’re going to find you but you have to be prepared to have that conversation 20 times.”
Moore is in favour of “some sort of limit” and says 10 families feels about right. “For me, it raises the question of why one donor has to be used 50 times,” he said. “Is there not a better solution than this? You imagine these extended families of thousands and thousands of people. It’s less a personal issue for me, but more an issue for society.”
Liam Renouf-Macnab, London
Renouf-Macnab, 29, connected with four biological half siblings after taking part in the ITV documentary Born From the Same Stranger and has since been in touch with another three half siblings. “Seven feels manageable,” he says. “I’m building relationships with them and that’s been really amazing.”
From non-identifying information provided by the HFEA, he knows he is from a sibling pod of 17 and although this is feasibly within the 10-family limit, he says he felt shocked by the number.
“I feel proud to be part of a heritage that’s really connected to women’s rights, fertility rights, LGBT rights,” he says. “But the marketisation of the industry to create 17 children felt like something I had to deal with and process and think through.”
Renouf-Macnab would like to see tighter regulation of the industry, with sperm banks brought into public ownership and a legal obligation on the HFEA to inform donor-conceived people of their biological origins. “One thing I support is that donor-conceived people have the right to know. If the HFEA, at 18, contacted the people who are donor conceived to tell them, it would spur parents on to make sure they have those conversations early.”
UK sperm donations being exported despite 10-family limit
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
Sun, 18 August 202
THE GUARDIAN
Donor-conceived children could have to navigate relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe.Photograph: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images
Sperm donated in the UK is being exported and can be used to create large numbers of children across multiple countries, contradicting a strict 10-family limit that applies in the UK, experts warn.
A legal loophole means that, while a single donor can be used to create no more than 10 families in UK fertility clinics, there are no restrictions on companies making sperm or eggs available for additional fertility treatments abroad.
With the lifting of donor anonymity and the ability to track down genetic relatives on DNA testing sites, this raises the prospect of some donor-conceived children navigating relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe.
Prof Jackson Kirkman-Brown, chair of the Association for Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS), is among those calling on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to tighten restrictions.
“If you believe that it’s necessary to enforce the 10-family limit in the modern world then logically that should apply wherever the sperm are from,” said Kirkman-Brown, who is also director of the Centre for Human Reproductive Science at the University of Birmingham. “There is data showing that some of the children who find the really big families struggle with that.”
Until five years ago, the UK was primarily an importer of sperm, largely from Denmark and the US. But, as a growing number of international sperm and egg banks have opened donor centres in the UK, the picture is becoming more complex.
From 2019-21, 7,542 straws of sperm were exported from the UK, according to data provided by the HFEA (one IVF cycle typically requires one straw of sperm). The European Sperm Bank, which accounted for 90% of exports, applies a worldwide limit of 75 families a donor and estimates that its donors help on average 25 families.
Cryos, the world’s largest sperm and egg bank, which opened a sperm donation unit in Manchester in April, said it “aims for 25-50 families per donor” worldwide.
Prof Lucy Frith, of the University of Manchester, who is researching donor-conceived experiences, says that making contact with biological half-siblings is often viewed positively. “But when numbers of siblings began to grow [it] felt unmanageable to have contact and relationships with a growing and indeterminate number of people,” she said. “There are no hard and fast figures of when the number becomes ‘too much’ and this depends on individuals, but generally over 10 was felt to be a large group.”
The potentially open-ended number of future siblings is another challenge. “Once you’ve frozen sperm it doesn’t get any older,” said Kirkman-Brown. In theory, a donor could continue to be used over years or even decades. “You can end up with donor siblings older than your parents, which is not somewhere we’ve been yet,” he added.
Others noted that the increasing commercialisation of the market contrasts with the altruistic basis for donation of sperm and eggs, with the UK law only allowing compensation for time and expenses.
“It’s presented to donors as a beautiful gift to help someone create a family, not as, ‘We’re going to maximise the number of births from your gametes and make as much money as we can from that,’” said Prof Nicky Hudson, a medical sociologist at De Montford University. “When you speak to donors and present these possibilities to them, they’re really surprised.”
Hudson is researching egg donation, which is emerging as a new market thanks to advances in egg freezing techniques and could expand further when compensation increases from £750 to £986 in October.
The shipping of eggs could open new frontiers for biological motherhood. “The idea of a dad to loads of children already exists in our cultural imagination,” Hudson added. “We don’t have that for women.”
“Egg donors really strongly rejected the idea of their eggs being shipped abroad,” she added. “One told me it’s akin to human trafficking.”
The rationale for enforcing the 10-family limit across licensed clinics, according to the HFEA, is that consultation with donors and donor-conceived people suggests this is the number people feel comfortable with in terms of the numbers of potential donor-conceived children, half-siblings and families that might be created.
“As the HFEA has no remit over donation outside of HFEA licensed clinics, there would be no monitoring of how many times a donor is used in these circumstances,” said Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA.
Others suggested that this remit could be expanded, in a comparable way to the HFEA’s mandate that overseas donors cannot be anonymous.
“The HFEA is limited by its statutory duties, but it could stipulate that it will only import gametes that meet the UK limit (10 families), outside the UK,” said Frith. “So a donor who has donated in another country would have those offspring taken into account.”
“The HFEA’s position that this is outside its remit is not good enough,” said Sarah Norcross, director of the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust. “I’m not against there being more than 10 families if some are outside the UK, but 75, which some of these banks have alighted on, is a heck of a lot of relatives. Even if they say we can’t control the number of families abroad, they could insist that the number is made available to the recipient.”
Both the European Sperm Bank and Cryos said they expect to supply most of the UK sperm to the UK market, based on customer demand.
The European Sperm Bank added: “We follow this topic very closely and engage in dialogue with both donor-conceived individuals, families and expert groups to get more insights and a deeper understanding of their wishes and concerns.”
Donor-conceived children could have to navigate relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe.Photograph: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images
Sperm donated in the UK is being exported and can be used to create large numbers of children across multiple countries, contradicting a strict 10-family limit that applies in the UK, experts warn.
A legal loophole means that, while a single donor can be used to create no more than 10 families in UK fertility clinics, there are no restrictions on companies making sperm or eggs available for additional fertility treatments abroad.
With the lifting of donor anonymity and the ability to track down genetic relatives on DNA testing sites, this raises the prospect of some donor-conceived children navigating relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe.
Prof Jackson Kirkman-Brown, chair of the Association for Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS), is among those calling on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to tighten restrictions.
“If you believe that it’s necessary to enforce the 10-family limit in the modern world then logically that should apply wherever the sperm are from,” said Kirkman-Brown, who is also director of the Centre for Human Reproductive Science at the University of Birmingham. “There is data showing that some of the children who find the really big families struggle with that.”
Until five years ago, the UK was primarily an importer of sperm, largely from Denmark and the US. But, as a growing number of international sperm and egg banks have opened donor centres in the UK, the picture is becoming more complex.
From 2019-21, 7,542 straws of sperm were exported from the UK, according to data provided by the HFEA (one IVF cycle typically requires one straw of sperm). The European Sperm Bank, which accounted for 90% of exports, applies a worldwide limit of 75 families a donor and estimates that its donors help on average 25 families.
Cryos, the world’s largest sperm and egg bank, which opened a sperm donation unit in Manchester in April, said it “aims for 25-50 families per donor” worldwide.
Prof Lucy Frith, of the University of Manchester, who is researching donor-conceived experiences, says that making contact with biological half-siblings is often viewed positively. “But when numbers of siblings began to grow [it] felt unmanageable to have contact and relationships with a growing and indeterminate number of people,” she said. “There are no hard and fast figures of when the number becomes ‘too much’ and this depends on individuals, but generally over 10 was felt to be a large group.”
The potentially open-ended number of future siblings is another challenge. “Once you’ve frozen sperm it doesn’t get any older,” said Kirkman-Brown. In theory, a donor could continue to be used over years or even decades. “You can end up with donor siblings older than your parents, which is not somewhere we’ve been yet,” he added.
Others noted that the increasing commercialisation of the market contrasts with the altruistic basis for donation of sperm and eggs, with the UK law only allowing compensation for time and expenses.
“It’s presented to donors as a beautiful gift to help someone create a family, not as, ‘We’re going to maximise the number of births from your gametes and make as much money as we can from that,’” said Prof Nicky Hudson, a medical sociologist at De Montford University. “When you speak to donors and present these possibilities to them, they’re really surprised.”
Hudson is researching egg donation, which is emerging as a new market thanks to advances in egg freezing techniques and could expand further when compensation increases from £750 to £986 in October.
The shipping of eggs could open new frontiers for biological motherhood. “The idea of a dad to loads of children already exists in our cultural imagination,” Hudson added. “We don’t have that for women.”
“Egg donors really strongly rejected the idea of their eggs being shipped abroad,” she added. “One told me it’s akin to human trafficking.”
The rationale for enforcing the 10-family limit across licensed clinics, according to the HFEA, is that consultation with donors and donor-conceived people suggests this is the number people feel comfortable with in terms of the numbers of potential donor-conceived children, half-siblings and families that might be created.
“As the HFEA has no remit over donation outside of HFEA licensed clinics, there would be no monitoring of how many times a donor is used in these circumstances,” said Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA.
Others suggested that this remit could be expanded, in a comparable way to the HFEA’s mandate that overseas donors cannot be anonymous.
“The HFEA is limited by its statutory duties, but it could stipulate that it will only import gametes that meet the UK limit (10 families), outside the UK,” said Frith. “So a donor who has donated in another country would have those offspring taken into account.”
“The HFEA’s position that this is outside its remit is not good enough,” said Sarah Norcross, director of the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust. “I’m not against there being more than 10 families if some are outside the UK, but 75, which some of these banks have alighted on, is a heck of a lot of relatives. Even if they say we can’t control the number of families abroad, they could insist that the number is made available to the recipient.”
Both the European Sperm Bank and Cryos said they expect to supply most of the UK sperm to the UK market, based on customer demand.
The European Sperm Bank added: “We follow this topic very closely and engage in dialogue with both donor-conceived individuals, families and expert groups to get more insights and a deeper understanding of their wishes and concerns.”
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