An article that shows the terrifying reality of sperm donation: 197 children born from a sperm donor with a rare mutated gene in Europe, some already dead. (CNN) A new investigation has revealed that the sperm of a man in Europe with a rare cancer-related gene mutation was used to conceive at least 197 children across Europe, and several of them have already died from illnesses. The donor himself is healthy, but it was found that he carries a rare mutation in a gene called "TP53." This mutation is highly likely to cause Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a disorder that increases the risk of developing cancer. The donor himself was unaware that he was affected by this mutation when he donated his sperm. In May, CNN reported that this man had fathered at least 67 children in eight European countries. A large-scale investigation published on the 10th of this month revealed that the number of affected children is much higher than previously thought. According to the BBC, the new figures are based on freedom of information requests and interviews with doctors and patients. Fourteen European public broadcasters, including the BBC, participated in the investigation. The man donated his sperm exclusively to the European Sperm Bank (ESB), a private sperm bank in Denmark. His sperm was used at 67 clinics across 14 countries. According to the BBC, data from all countries is not yet available, so the final number could be even higher. It is unknown how many of these children inherited the gene mutation. For those who do inherit the mutation, only a small fraction will go through life without developing some form of cancer. According to the Cleveland Clinic in the US, people with this disorder have a 90% probability of developing one or more types of cancer by age 60, and about a 50% probability by age 40. In May, Edwige Kasper, a biologist at the Rouen University Hospital in France, revealed at a conference presentation that the man's sperm was used in 67 pregnancies. At the time, she stated that 10 children had been diagnosed with cancers such as brain tumors, and another 13 carried the mutation but had not yet developed symptoms. Because these children are at a high risk of developing cancer, they need regular medical checkups. Additionally, there is a 50% chance that they will pass the mutation on to their own children. Regarding this case, Professor Tumble stated, "This is an extremely unfortunate case where two highly unusual events coincided: a donor possessed a mutation for an extremely rare genetic disorder affecting less than 1 in 10,000 people, and that sperm was used to conceive an extraordinarily large number of children."
That's terrifying. It feels like there's a real possibility that children who received the same donor's sperm could end up marrying and having kids together without even knowing it.
Can you get tested for things like this at a hospital?
If you really wanted to, you could, but paying out of pocket is quite expensive.
It's the human version of the potato famine. [The Potato Famine] Genetic diversity is extremely important for species to adapt to their environment and survive, or for humans to selectively breed organisms. A prominent example of the loss of genetic diversity is the Irish Potato Famine in the 19th century. Potatoes, the staple food for the Irish at the time, were wiped out by a single disease outbreak. Over 2 million people died, and many migrated to America and Britain. Former US President J.F. Kennedy was a descendant of these immigrants, making it truly a "famine that changed history." Potatoes reproduce through cloning, and the potatoes grown in Ireland at that time were all clones of a single potato variety, meaning they were genetically uniform. As a result, every single potato contracted the same blight. If the potatoes in Ireland had possessed genetic diversity at that time, disease-resistant ones might have survived and prevented the devastation of the famine.
Genetics are terrifying. Since it lies dormant for so long, having it finally manifest must feel like a bolt out of the blue.
This just shows how absurdly fertile the donor must have been to be able to donate that much.
There was some news recently saying that children can now demand to know the identity of the sperm donor, right? There must be some donors who really wouldn't want their personal information revealed.
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