The Danish Patient Safety Authority has filed a police report against European Sperm Bank after documents showed that sperm from 81 donors was sold to more Danish women than the law allows.
The case was made public on September 10, 2026, by DR. European Sperm Bank is one of the world’s largest sperm banks and has helped tens of thousands of children into the world.
Documents obtained by DR through freedom of information requests at Styrelsen for Patientsikkerhed show that sperm from 186 donors resulted in more children than permitted or recommended in Denmark. The authority’s police report covers 81 of those cases.
Denmark has two sets of rules for sperm donors, depending on whether the man was recruited before or after March 2013. Newer donors are subject to a legal limit of 12 Danish families, while older donors fall under a guideline of 25 children. The 81 donors named in the police report signed up after 2013 and were used for more than 12 women.
Older cases fall outside the police report
A further 105 donors were recruited before 2013 and exceeded the recommendation that applied at the time, per DR. Those cases are not a breach of the law and are therefore not part of the police case. At the top of the list is one man who is the genetic father of 110 children in Denmark alone, four times the guideline.
According to DR, European Sperm Bank has not contacted the affected donors or the women who used their sperm. Only the sperm bank knows the identities of the donors involved. The company argues that it may not inform families and donor children, because the information concerns personal data about the donors.
DR contacted the sperm bank’s director, David Truels Hansen, and asked whether the donors will be informed. His answer was published by DR in a separate article. Hansen took over as director of European Sperm Bank in November 2024.
Over the past year, DR has also reported on the donor known as Kjeld, who unknowingly carried a hidden genetic mutation. The bank discovered the fault only after children developed cancer and then halted distribution. By that point the sperm had been sold in 14 countries and had resulted in more than 200 donor children.
DR asked European Sperm Bank whether any of the 81 oversold donors have been blocked because of an increased risk of hereditary disease. The sperm bank did not answer the question. DR has published the bank’s lists of oversold donors as a document on its website.
