A donation not without consequences. In Belgium, a sperm donor was used with a genetic mutation to design at least 67 children … 10 of which were diagnosed with cancer, reports the Belgian RTL Info Media on Tuesday, May 27.
If the total number of children in question is not yet known at this stage, seven Belgian families are affected, according to the flamenco newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.
At the moment, only two families have returned to their clinics after discovering that their children had developed cancer linked to this rare genetic variant. Keep in mind that these two families had received a sperm donation of the same man provided by the European Sperm Bank.
“We have to establish a European limit”
During the analyzes, families discovered that babies have sustained li-phase syndrome, an inherited cancer form that can affect children and young adults.
Several genetics specialists quickly reacted to this incident. “We must establish a European limit for the amount of births or families for the same donor,” said Dr. Edwige Kasper, a biologist at the Hospital of the University of Rouen, of The Guardian.
For his part, Professor Nicky Hudson, from the University of Montfort to Leicester, supported the bank’s lack of supervision around families that receive sperm donations.
“We need better monitoring systems for the use of donors and information for recipients,” Professor Nicky Hudson reacted from the University of Montfort in Leicester.
With respect to other families, several other surveys have revealed that ten families in France benefited from the gift of man who carries a genetic transfer, says the Parisian. The other children with the disease were invited to undergo a battery of tests through MRI of the whole body and the brain to determine their situation.
“Rigorous checks” made in the donor
“The donor had undergone rigorous controls, but it is impossible to scientifically detect all pathogenic changes without precisely knowing what we are looking for,” said Julie Paulli Budtz, spokesman for the European Bank of Espermos.
To prevent this scenario from being renewed, the European sperm bank claimed to have established an “international limit of 75 families per donor.”
Source: BFM TV
