UK Sperm export to foreign countries is causing multiple half-siblings worldwide: Report

Several reports have shown concerns over the UK sperm export culture. The reports claim that Sperm initially donated in the UK are being exported to foreign countries, violating the rules of the country and ultimately leading towards mass production of children in foreign countries, causing a cluster of half-siblings globally.

As per the rules, each sperm donation is limited to 10 families in England, But unlike this, no such limit has been set on the export of sperm or eggs to foreign countries. This is where the law is being exploited in an industrial-level practice. According to the report of the Guardian newspaper, this practice has led to donors conceiving a child in a foreign country, who “could have to navigate relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe.”

Why is it concerning?

Emphasizing the concerns of the practice, Sarah Norcross, director of the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust, reported to The Guardian. “I’m not against there being more than 10 families if some are outside the UK, but 75, which some of these banks have alighted on, is a heck of a lot of relatives.”

Prof Lucy Frith of the University of Manchester believes that with advancing technologies, it is not a big thing to track down the biological parents using new DNA testing options proliferating online. “While making contact with biological half-siblings is viewed positively, but when their numbers grew, it felt unmanageable to have contact and relationships with a growing and indeterminate number of people,” he said.

Explaining it towards the longer implications Prof Jackson Kirkman-Brown, chair of the Association for Reproductive and Clinical Scientists, said, “Once you’ve frozen sperm, it doesn’t get any older. You can end up with donor siblings older than your parents.”

Donations are “presented to donors as a beautiful gift to help someone create a family, not as ‘We’re going to maximize the number of births from your gametes and make as much money as we can from that,’” said Prof. Nicky Hudson, a medical sociologist at De Montford University.

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is the controlling body that implements the rules in Britain regarding sperm and egg donations. Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA was featured in the report of The Guardian saying, “As the HFEA has no remit over donation outside of HFEA licensed clinics, there would be no monitoring of how many times a donor is used in these circumstances,” Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA, was quoted as saying in the Guardian report.

Kirkman-Brown highlighted that “There is data showing that some of the children who find the really big families struggle with that. If you believe that it’s necessary to enforce the 10-family limit in the modern world, then logically that should apply wherever the sperm are from.”

The report further pointed out how Britain used to import sperms five years prior from the USA and Denmark. But since 2018 UK started exporting around 7,542 straws of sperm between 2019 and 2021, UK exported 7,542 straws of sperm. Following this, the world’s largest sperm and egg bank Cryos, established a branch in Manchester this April.

Egg Donations

Not just Sperm donation but England has also experienced a major spike in egg donations. Egg-freezing technologies have seen an uproar in the past few years. The Guardian report further claimed that the egg donation is expected to grow even further as the payment for it is also expected to increase from £750 to £986 in October.

Prof Nicky Hudson believes that “The idea of a dad to loads of children already exists in our cultural imagination. We don’t have that for women.” Hudson added that women do not encourage this idea. She mentioned that as per one of the women it ‘felt like human trafficking’.

You might also be interested in – Bombay HC rules sperm and egg donors cannot claim biological parenthood