Sperm donated in the UK is being exported to other countries and can be used to create large numbers of children across the world, violating a strict 10-family limit that applies in the UK, experts warned. According to The Guardian, while a single donor can be used to create no more than 10 families in UK fertility clinics, there are no restrictions on sperm or eggs from the country being sent abroad. This legal loophole is being exploited in what appears to be an industrial-level practice. It also raises the prospect of some donor-conceived children navigating relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe and beyond. 

Amidst this, experts are calling on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to tighten restrictions. “If you believe that it’s necessary to enforce the 10-family limit in the modern world then logically that should apply wherever the sperm are from,” said Prof Jackson Kirkman-Brown, chair of the Association for Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS), per The Guardian. “There is data showing that some of the children who find the really big families struggle with that,” he added. 

Separately, speaking to the outlet, Prof Lucy Frith, of the University of Manchester, who is researching donor-conceived experiences, said that making contact with biological half-siblings is often viewed positively. However, she added that “when numbers of siblings began to grow [it] felt unmanageable to have contact and relationships with a growing and indeterminate number of people.” 

“There are no hard and fast figures of when the number becomes ‘too much’ and this depends on individuals, but generally over 10 was felt to be a large group,” she said. 

“Once you’ve frozen sperm it doesn’t get any older,” said Mr Kirkman-Brown. This means that a donor sperm could continue to be used for years or decades. “You can end up with donor siblings older than your parents, which is not somewhere we’ve been yet,” he added.

Donations are “presented to donors as a beautiful gift to help someone create a family, not as, ‘We’re going to maximise the number of births from your gametes and make as much money as we can from that,'” said Prof Nicky Hudson, a medical sociologist at De Montford University. 

The rule for enforcing the 10-family limit across licensed clinics is controlled by HEFA. According to the regulatory body, 10 is the number people feel comfortable with in terms of the number of potential donor-conceived children, half-siblings and families that might be created. 

“As the HFEA has no remit over donation outside of HFEA licensed clinics, there would be no monitoring of how many times a donor is used in these circumstances,” said Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA.

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Experts are now asking HEFA to crack down. “The HFEA is limited by its statutory duties, but it could stipulate that it will only import gametes that meet the UK limit (10 families), outside the UK,” said Lucy Frith. 

“The HFEA’s position that this is outside its remit is not good enough,” said Sarah Norcross, director of the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust. “I’m not against there being more than 10 families if some are outside the UK, but 75, which some of these banks have alighted on, is a heck of a lot of relatives. Even if they say we can’t control the number of families abroad, they could insist that the number is made available to the recipient,” she added. 

Notably, according to The Guardian, the United Kingdom was an importer of sperm till five years ago, mainly from the US and Denmark. But between 2019 and 2021, the UK exported 7,542 straws of sperm. Additionally, the world’s largest sperm and egg bank Cryos opened a unit in Manchester this April.

“The European Sperm Bank, which accounted for 90% of exports, applies a worldwide limit of 75 families a donor and estimates that its donors help on average 25 families,” the report said. 

“The idea of a dad to loads of children already exists in our cultural imagination. We don’t have that for women,” noted Prof Nicky Hudson, adding that it’s not an idea encouraged by women. One of them told her it “felt like human trafficking”. 

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Anton Yushyn spent four years studying Italian at university in Kyiv but the outbreak of war taught him the most valuable lesson of his student life: to prioritise what matters most.

When he enrolled at Kyiv National Linguistic University, Russia had not yet invaded, and his main concerns were socialising and passing exams to placate his parents.

“Maybe it’s not my goals that have changed but my values,” Yushyn, 22, told AFP on graduation day in Kyiv last month.

“It all used to be about parties and having fun. Now you need to spend more time with family and friends because they could be gone at any moment,” he said.

Thousands of Ukrainians graduating from around 300 universities this summer are entering into a society transformed by war — their futures in doubt with no end in sight to the fighting.

As Ukraine mobilises young men to replenish the army’s stretched ranks, male graduates face the prospect of being called up once they turn 25.

Higher education has not been immune from the conflict.

Dozens of teachers and professors have been fighting on the front lines and one-fifth of the sector’s facilities have been damaged or destroyed by Russian bombardments.

In December 2022, a missile landed just a few hundred metres from Yushyn’s campus.

To stay, or leave

But on graduation day, the mood at Yushyn’s alma mater was festive. Perfume hung in the hot summer air and staff congratulated joyful students for completing their studies in the face of historic turbulence.

Student life was barely back to normal after the Covid pandemic when Russia invaded in February 2022.

Universities suspended classes and Korean language student Nikoletta Shova was sent by her parents to stay with relatives in Italy.

The 22-year-old compared the “emotional” time abroad to being in a “stupor”, left wondering if she would ever be able to return.

Teaching restarted at most universities just a few weeks later — online or in person — when Russian forces were still on Kyiv’s outskirts.

Shova returned after three months away and was able to finish her degree in person while raising money for the war effort with classmates.

Now, with her diploma in hand, uncertainty had returned.

She was considering studying abroad — possibly marketing in the United States — but she was also open to finding a creative job at home.

Building a future in Ukraine despite the war was possible, she said, borrowing a popular phrase to underscore that it would take perseverance: “he who doesn’t take risks never drinks champagne”.

Jokes, memes

“So I’m being realistic but with a bit of positivity,” she said of her future.

Daryna Dekhtiar, 22, also a graduate of Kyiv National Linguistic University, went numb when Russia invaded.

“I didn’t cry at all. I just went into autopilot,” she said, but her friends had helped lift her spirits too, she added.

“We created our own memes, our jokes, it made it all much easier,” she recalled.

Dana Andriichuk, who already had secured an office job by graduation, was rushing to meet friends after the ceremony.

She didn’t want to dwell on the relative comfort of her student years or spend too much thinking about the prospect of a long war.

“I’m trying to avoid being a pessimist stuck in the past. I want to live now and not in the future, because we don’t know what will happen next,” she said.

“If the government encourages young people to stay and do everything possible to build a better future even in a state of war — and society becomes nationally conscious — then we can consider staying in the country,” she said.

– ‘Don’t run and hide’ –

Like thousands of other male graduates, Yushyn does not have as much freedom to choose. Authorities have barred men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving Ukraine.

Thousands have left illegally and dozens have died trying.

But Yushyn was resigned to life at home.

“Real men don’t run and hide. If the time comes and I get a summons, I won’t run from it,” he told AFP.

“I can wind myself up, cry, sit here trembling all I want, it won’t change the trajectory of the rocket,” he said.

Whatever the future holds, he said he was unlikely to use Italian, but was resolved to spending his time as best he could.

“I need to use it to the fullest.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)