European IVF scandal: at least 197 children conceived using a donor carrying a cancer-causing gene (including 53 in Belgium)
On 7 January, the Belgian Federal Parliament's Health and Equal Opportunities Committee heard from Public Health Minister Franck Vandenbroucke about the gamete scandal. MPs are seeking to find out how such an overrun was possible, given that the 2007 Belgian law limits the number of women who can receive gametes from the same donor to six.
In June 2025, it was revealed that fertility centres in Belgium, as well as in several other European countries, had used gametes from the same donor who carried the TP53 gene mutation, which is potentially cancerous for his descendants. To date, there are at least 197 children in Europe who were born as a result of his donation (including 53 in Belgium alone). Several failures have been identified, involving the Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AFMPS), fertility clinics and gamete banks.
At the time of the events, which took place between 2008 and 2017, there was no reliable means of monitoring the national limit of six women per gamete donor. Fertidata, the centralised Belgian register that has been used since 2024 to centralise donor data and carry out this verification, did not yet exist at that time. This limit was therefore exceeded several times by fertility centres. In addition, the AFMPS, alerted in 2023 to several cases of cancer in children born to the same donor, did not immediately take the necessary measures to ensure that each family was informed of the health risk to their child. Some families were not notified until 2025, and others are still unaware of this tragedy, as several fertility centres have closed.
Finally, this tragedy highlights a failure at the international level, as there is no European limit on the number of children per donor. Although Belgian law specifies that centres must ensure that gametes are not distributed to more than six recipients when they import gametes, it is impossible to control a foreign sperm bank. Quotas are therefore not always respected, not only within the same country but also between countries.
In response to this health scandal, the Belgian Minister of Health has announced several measures.
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From now on, and without waiting for the adoption of a legal framework to this effect, as soon as the AFMPS is alerted to an exceedance of quotas, fertility centres will have to inform the households concerned that they can request, if they wish, how many children are affected.
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The new SoHo regulation (passed in 2025 for implementation in 2027) stipulates that European sperm banks must now take into account the quotas of each Member State, in particular the number of children born. The authority of the country where the bank is located will be responsible for enforcing this obligation. A working group is currently considering the feasibility of limiting the number of families who can benefit from gametes from the same donor at European level to 25.
This tragedy, the number of children affected by which is not yet known, once again highlights the delicate question of whether gamete donation is in the best interests of children. Compliance with quotas will not eliminate the risk inherent in this type of reproduction, which, with gamete donation, multiplies the health risks. These risks are physical but also psychological when the anonymity of donors makes it impossible to trace one's origins.
