The Guardian has the news in this story: ‘Medical calamity’: dozens of Dutch sperm donors fathered at least 25 children. (HT: Al Roth's Market Design Blog)
According to the article: “At least 85 sperm donors in the Netherlands have fathered 25 or more children, the national gynaecology and obstetrics organisation has said, after a new registration system showed fertility clinics have been breaking existing rules on sperm donation for decades.”
These revelations are important because countries like the Netherlands are often held up as regulatory role models, in contrast to the US, which has a fractured and largely unregulated system. But enforcement matters too, it turns out, and here there was none.
The information became available only once donor anonymity laws were lifted: “Since 2004, when donors’ right to anonymity was lifted, the data showed there had been at least 85 “mass donors” (defined as at least 25 conceptions).”
“Most were biological father to between 26 and 40 children, Schoonenberg said, although several had between 50 and 75. Among them were at least 10 fertility doctors” (emphasis mine)
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