According to an article in the New York Times one sperm donor fathered at least 150 children. The story profiles a woman who searched a Web-based registry for other children fathered by the same donor and helped to create an online group to track them. Over the years, she watched the number of children in her son’s group grow. Today there are 150 children, all conceived with sperm from one donor, in this group of half siblings, and more are on the way.
Now, there is growing concern among parents, donors and medical experts about potential negative consequences of having so many children fathered by the same donors, including the possibility that genes for rare diseases could be spread more widely through the population. Some experts are even calling attention to the increased odds of accidental incest between half sisters and half brothers, who often live close to one another.
Although other countries, including Britain, France and Sweden, limit how many children a sperm donor can father, there is no such limit in the United States. There are only guidelines issued by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, that recommends restricting conceptions by individual donors to 25 births per population of 800,000.
The bottom line for women considering sperm donation is that it may be a good idea to check their potential donor on these Web-based registries to get an idea of how many children the donor may have fathered in their area.