[Spreading of hereditary diseases through donor sperm: no reason for reducing the number of offspring per donor in the Netherlands].
In the Netherlands, a limit of 25 offspring per sperm donor has been applied for many years. This figure was based on the assumption that children from sperm donors are not at greater risk of having consanguineous relationships than a random individual of the Dutch population. After the report in 2002 that a donor, whose sperm was used to father 18 children by artificial insemination, had developed a serious hereditary brain disease, the question of whether the limit of 25 should be reduced was raised. From a population genetics point of view, reducing the number of children per donor will only result in greater genetic diversity being transmitted to the offspring of sperm donors. Moreover, the number of children from sperm donors is a negligibly small proportion of the general population (0.5% of the total number of newly-borns). Since no knowledge of other offspring from one particular donor is available to individuals making use of donor insemination, only optimally guaranteed safety (both genetic and microbial) is important to these people and their offspring, given that the risk of inbreeding is acceptably low. Finally, the interests of the donor can be properly safeguarded through individual agreements. Therefore, to conclude, there are no reasons to reduce the limit of 25 offspring per sperm donor.
Ziekenhuis Rijnstate, Klinisch Chemisch Laboratorium/Spermabank, Postbus 9555, 6800 TA Arnhem. pjanssens@rijnstate.nl
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D003241:Consanguinity; D005260:Female; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000235:genetics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007316:Insemination, Artificial, Heterologous / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D011247:Pregnancy; D011336:Probability; D012307:Risk Factors; D013094:Spermatozoa; D014019:Tissue Donors