Belgium Says 52 Babies Born From Sperm Donor with Cancer-Linked Gene

Priscilla (33) has a great desire to have children, but her sickle cell disease makes fulfilling that wish extra complicated. She had to stop taking her medication and will receive a blood transfusion every six weeks. That requires a lot of blood, especially from people with dark skin.

A man gives semen. Then it turns out that he has a rare genetic defect that favors cancer. 67 descendants are found. The case sheds light on the problems of sperm donation.

What the Belgian Ministry of Health announced - The alarm about the Danish donor sounded in 2020, while it was only last year that he was linked to the dangerous mutation - The monitoring system in the country is incomplete, the limit of six women per donor is being circumvented

The Belgian families of 52 donor children were told this week that their children were conceived with the sperm of a Danish donor who carries a rare cancer-causing gene.

Supposedly, every tenth child comes from a secret affair. Belgian biologist Maarten Larmuseau wants to know more about it – and deciphers the hidden stories of paternity. The results also shed a new light on the loyalty of women.

Sperm donor's genetic mutation linked to cancer in 10 conceived children

A European sperm donor linked to 67 pregnancies carried a rare cancer-causing mutation, reportedly leading to cancer in 10 children and raising concerns about genetic screening limits.