Some men have fathered exceptionally large numbers of offspring by donating sperm. The BBC reported on a man whose sperm contained a genetic mutation that drastically increased the risk of cancer in some children conceived with his sperm.
One of the most striking findings of the investigation was that his sperm was sent to 14 countries and used to conceive at least 197 children.
This discovery provided a rare insight into the scale of the sperm donation industry.
Donated sperm allows women to become mothers in situations where this would not otherwise be possible - if their partner is infertile, if they are in a same-sex relationship, or if they decide to be single mothers.
Meeting that need has grown into big business.
He estimates that by 2033, the value of this market in Europe will be around 2,3 billion euros, and Denmark will be the largest exporter of sperm.
So, why do some donors father such large numbers of children, why is Danish, or so-called "Viking sperm," so sought after, and is it necessary to introduce stricter rules in the area of donation and use of this sperm?
Most men don't have "good enough" sperm
If you are a man reading this, we regret to inform you that the quality of your sperm is probably not good enough to be a donor.
Namely, less than five percent of voluntary sperm donors meet the criteria.
First, your sample needs to contain a sufficient total number of sperm, followed by a check of their motility, as well as the morphology, or shape, of the sperm, which is crucial for fertility.
Sperm is further tested to see if it can survive freezing and long-term storage in a sperm bank.
You can be fully fertile, have six children, but not meet the requirements to be a donor.
Rules vary from country to country.
In the United Kingdom, some of the requirements are that the donor must be relatively young, between 18 and 45 years old, free of infections such as HIV and gonorrhoea; and not carry mutations that cause genetic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis (most commonly affects breathing, but also causes disorders of the pancreas, liver and intestines), spinal muscular atrophy and sickle cell anaemia (a blood disease in which red blood cells develop abnormally and cannot effectively transport oxygen through the blood throughout the body).
All of this means that the number of people who ultimately qualify as sperm donors is very small.
In the United Kingdom, half of donated sperm is imported.
However, due to biology, a small number of sperm donors can have a large number of offspring.
Only one sperm is needed to fertilize an egg, but there are tens of millions of sperm in each ejaculation.
Men who donate sperm go to the clinic once or twice a week for several months.
Due to the shortage, donated sperm has become a "precious commodity" and "sperm banks and fertility clinics are making the most of available donors to meet demand," explains Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Education Fund, a charity supporting people with fertility problems.
Some donors' sperm is more sought after than others
Within that small pool of donors, some men's sperm is simply more sought after.
Donors are not chosen randomly.
This process is similar to the cruelty of dating apps, as some men receive many more "matches" than others.
Depending on the sperm bank's rules, it is possible to view photos of donors, listen to their voices, find out what they do - whether they are engineers or artists - as well as their height, weight, and some other information.
"If the donors are called Sven, have blonde hair, are 193cm tall, play sports, play the violin, and speak seven languages - they are clearly a much more attractive choice than a donor who looks like me," says male fertility expert Professor Alan Pacey, who previously ran a sperm bank in Sheffield, England.
"Basically, donor selection comes down to categorizing donors into two groups - yes/maybe and no."
How Viking sperm conquered the world
Denmark is home to some of the largest sperm banks in the world and has gained a reputation as the country that produces so-called "Viking babies."
Ole Schu, the 71-year-old founder of the sperm bank Cryos International, where a 0,5 milliliter vial of sperm costs between 100 and more than 1.000 euros, says the culture of sperm donation in Denmark is significantly different than in other countries.
"Our society is like a big family," he says.
"There is less taboo around these issues, and we are an altruistic society, because many sperm donors are also voluntary blood donors."
This, says Schu, is what has enabled Denmark to become "one of the few countries that exports sperm."
He claims that Danish sperm is also in demand because of its genetics.
He tells the BBC that "the Danish genes for blue eyes and blonde hair" are recessive, meaning both parents must have the traits for them to be expressed in a child.
Because of this, the mother's traits, such as dark hair, "can be dominant in the child that is born," explains Shu.
He adds that donated sperm is mostly sought by "single, highly educated women in their thirties who are focused on their careers and have started planning for a family too late."
These women now make up about 60 percent of requests for donated sperm.
- Nearly 200 children conceived with donor sperm with cancer-causing genetic mutation
- Babies conceived with genetic material from three people born free of hereditary diseases
- Hope, Panic, and Grief: My Nine-Year Struggle to Have a Baby
Sperm transfer across borders
One of the subjects of the sperm donor investigation, the findings of which were published this week, was how sperm from the same man, collected at the European Sperm Bank in Denmark, ended up in 67 infertility treatment clinics in 14 countries.
Each country has its own rules about how many times a single donor's sperm can be used.
In some cases the restrictions apply to the total number of children, and in others to the maximum number of mothers (so that each family can have as many genetically related children as they want).
The original reason for introducing such restrictions was to prevent children who are half-siblings and half-brothers and do not know that they are related from meeting, getting into a relationship, and conceiving offspring.
However, there is no rule that prevents sperm from the same donor from being used, for example, in Italy and Spain, and then in the Netherlands and Belgium, as long as the regulations in each individual country are respected.
Because of this, the same sperm donor can, completely legally, become the father of a large number of children, although the man himself is often unaware of this fact.
"Many sperm users, and even donors themselves, are unaware that sperm from the same donor can be used legally in many different countries, and this should be made more clear," says Sarah Norcross.
He adds that it would be "reasonable" to reduce the number of children a single donor can have.
Following an investigation into a sperm donor who passed on a gene linked to cancer to some of the 197 children conceived with his sperm, officials in Belgium have called on the European Commission to establish a Europe-wide registry of sperm donors to track its "flow" across borders.
Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Frank Vandenbroek said the industry resembled the "Wild West" and that "the original mission of enabling people to start a family has been turned into a real business."
The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology has also proposed limiting the number of families per donor to 50 in all European Union (EU) countries.
However, such a system would still allow more than 100 babies to be conceived with the sperm of a single donor, if families want two or more children.
Concerns have also been expressed about the possible consequences for children conceived with donated sperm.
Some of them will have no problem with that, but others might be deeply disturbed to learn that they were conceived with donated sperm and have hundreds of half-brothers and half-sisters.
The same goes for the donors themselves, who often don't know that their sperm has been used so many times.
These risks are further increased by the readily available DNA ancestry tests, as well as social media, through which people can search for their children, siblings, or the donor himself.
In the UK, the anonymity of sperm donors has been abolished, and an official procedure has been established for informing children of the identity of their biological father.
Ole Schu of sperm bank Cryos International believes that additional restrictions on sperm donation would only lead families to "turn to the private, completely unregulated market."
Dr John Appleby, an expert in medical ethics at Lancaster University in England, says the implications of such widespread use of donated sperm present a "huge" ethical minefield.
He points out that there are issues of identity, privacy, consent, dignity, and many others, which require a delicate "balancing" between the needs of both parties.
Dr Appleby adds that the industry has a "responsibility to control how many times a donor's sperm is used", but that reaching agreement on international rules would undoubtedly be a "very difficult" task.
He points out that establishing a global sperm donor registry, which has been proposed, would also raise many "ethical and legal issues."
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