Donor With 90% Cancer-Risk Gene Fathers Almost 200 Children Across Europe

A Europe-wide investigative probe has exposed one of the most alarming fertility scandals in recent history, revealing that an anonymous sperm donor, whose samples were used for nearly two decades, unknowingly carried a dangerous genetic mutation linked to a devastating cancer syndrome.

The investigation, led by the European Broadcasting Union’s Investigative Journalism Network, found that the donor’s sperm was used to father at least 197 children across multiple European countries, including several in the UK.

What makes the case so harrowing is that the donor carried a mutation in the TP53 gene, the root cause of Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a severe, inherited condition that gives carriers up to a 90% lifetime risk of cancer, often beginning in childhood.
Some of the affected children have already died, according to investigators.

The donor, a student who contributed sperm for roughly 17 years beginning in 2005, passed routine screening because he appeared completely healthy. The mutation affects only up to 20% of his sperm, meaning the donor himself shows no symptoms, yet any child who inherits the mutation carries it in every cell of their body.

The European Sperm Bank in Denmark, which distributed the donor’s sperm across the continent, admitted the donor was used to create “too many” children in certain countries. The bank said it was “deeply sympathetic” to the families affected and emphasized that this type of TP53 mutation is typically undetectable in standard donor screening.

Once the genetic link to the cancer syndrome surfaced, the bank says it immediately blocked the donor, but by then, the extent of the damage was irreversible.

Families across Europe are now grappling not only with the revelation that their children may carry a life-threatening genetic disorder, but also with the shattering discovery that the fertility system meant to help them build families may have quietly put them at unimaginable risk.