TV Review: Zembla – What are the consequences of the global trade in donor sperm?

Have you ever wondered what it means to have dozens of half-siblings across the world – or to never know where half of your genetic identity comes from? A recent episode of Zembla explores the human consequences of the global trade in donor sperm...

Have you ever stopped to consider what it must be like to have 17 or more half-brothers and sisters? Or what it would mean if you could never find out where half of 'you' came from? A recent episode of Dutch investigative journalism programme Zembla explores exactly these questions, in an unassuming and deeply human way. Through a series of frank interviews with donor-conceived children and their parents, doctors, advocates and donors, it exposes the hidden costs of the international sperm donation industry on the lives of those most affected.

The episode opens with a technology-marvelling tour of Cryos International in Denmark, one of the world's largest sperm banks. Watching it, you feel the programme is not a dramatised depiction of isolated incidents where one man purportedly fathered 1000s of children (see BioNews 1257), but...