Monday, November 30, 2009

Sperm donor screening needs to be overhauled

The Donor Sibling Registry reported about the recent birth of a severely handicapped and profoundly retarded baby girl who had inherited an unbalanced translocation from sperm donor D-250. Now, the same problem has been disclosed as occurring at the London Women's Clinic. A donor was found to be a balanced translocation carrier only after his semen had been widely commercialised. A couple had to destroy 22 embryos created over the period of a year, at a cost of over 15 thousand pounds, and undoubtedly with considerable emotional investment. Eleven other women were also treated with the abnormal sperm, and are likely to also be suffering enormous turmoil. Whether they miscarried, are pregnant or were unsuccessful at conceiving, all of them will be asking tough questions about how this could happen. BioNews

Related: Fertility doctor accused of substituting own sperm for patient's husband's

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