A sperm donor with a dangerous genetic mutation has had 197 children in Europe, and some of them have already died.

A major investigation revealed that a sperm donor, who was unaware that he had a genetic mutation that significantly increases the risk of cancer, has fathered at least 197 children in Europe. Unfortunately, some of these children have died, and only a minority of those who inherit the mutation will escape cancer during their lifetime. The sperm was not sold to clinics in the United Kingdom, but the BBC confirms that a very small number of British families, informed about the situation, used sperm from this donor during fertility treatments in Denmark.

The European Sperm Bank in Denmark, which sold the sperm, expressed compassion for the affected families and acknowledged that the sperm had been used to conceive too many children in some countries.