The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology has recommended a cross-border cap on how many families one sperm donor may help create, starting at 50 families per donor and falling to 15.
DR reports that ESHRE also wants a shared European donor register, so the limit can be enforced across national borders. The recommendation appears in a press release from Denmark’s Council on Ethics, which has backed a similar limit together with the ethics councils of Norway, Sweden and Finland.
According to DR, ESHRE first announced the recommendation in a press release in June. The proposal was drawn up after European fertility doctors, bioanalysts, biologists and patient organizations discussed and agreed on the specific figures.
There is currently no common European ceiling, and the rules differ from country to country. In Denmark, the legal limit is 12 different Danish families per donor. Sperm from the same donor can still be used abroad under each country’s own rules.
Kirsten Tryde Macklon, senior consultant at the fertility clinic at Rigshospitalet and chair of ESHRE’s ethics committee, described the figures as a balance. She told DR that setting the limit too low could create long waiting times for donor sperm on the market. She added that prospective parents who need donor sperm should not lose the possibility of having a child.
Donor group wants a lower ceiling
The organization Donorbørns Vilkår welcomed the idea of a limit but wants it set far lower. Chairperson Bodil Skov told DR that the association’s recommendation is seven families per donor. She said the interests of the individual donor-conceived child should weigh more heavily than the difficulty families may face in fulfilling their wish for a child.
Skov also argued that a lower ceiling could make donation more attractive. Per her comments to DR, donors would not face a future in which they might meet several hundred children.
The Danish case behind the recommendation
DR says the recommendation follows its reporting over the past year on a Danish donor who carried a serious, cancer-causing genetic defect. At least 210 children were born using sperm from that donor, and the defect was passed on to several of them.
TV 2 reported in May 2025 on the wider background to Danish donor limits. As reported by TV 2, one sperm donor became the father of 67 children, and ten of them later developed cancer.
The cross-border use of donor sperm has been raised before. Euronews noted in June 2025 that the same donor can be used in several countries, citing Denmark’s 12-family limit as an example.
Under current Danish rules, described by the Danish Patient Safety Authority, sperm banks must screen donors. Sperm must be quarantined or permanently banned if screening shows a significantly increased risk of transmitting a disease or carrier state.
