A sperm donor with a rare genetic mutation linked to cancer is sparking debate about regulation of the practice.
In the years between 2008 and 2015, sperm from the same donor was used to conceive at least 67 children from 46 families, Edwige Kasper—a biologist at Rouen University Hospital in France—revealed, per CNN, during a May 24 presentation at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Milan.
And of the children conceived using the unnamed donor’s sperm, ten have already been diagnosed with cancer.
“At the heart of the problem seems to lie the regulation,” Kasper explained during the presentation, “or maybe the lack of regulation of the number of births by a single donor.”
While analysis proved that the donor was healthy himself, it also showed that he possessed a rare mutation in a gene named TP53, which is likely to cause a rare disorder that increases a person’s risk of developing cancer called Li-Fraumeni Syndrome.
