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New regulations in sperm donation are being implemented by Belgium's Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP), following revelations regarding the use of sperm carrying a cancer-causing mutation, and widespread breaches of donor limits.
In 2025, it came to light that a genetic mutation predisposing carriers to cancer had been present in sperm provided by a donor in Denmark, which was subsequently used in clinics across Europe. At the time, 23 children conceived from the donor were found to carry the mutation, ten of whom had been diagnosed with cancer (see BioNews 1319).
Professor Dirk Ramaekers, chair of the Belgian Federal Public Health Service, told the Brussels Times that the case highlighted 'structural shortcomings throughout the entire medically assisted reproduction chain.'
In Belgium, the donor was found to have fathered 53 children across 38 families; it has since been revealed that at least 93 other donors had also exceeded legal usage limits.
Belgium law on medically assisted reproduction, introduced in 2007 for ethical reasons, stipulates that no single donor may be used to treat more...