The Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into abuses with sperm donation in various Belgian fertility centres. It is not clear which fertility centres are involved.
The news was first reported by VRT, and later confirmed by the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office. They are not providing any further information for the time being.
In early June, Public Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) announced in the Chamber that the medicines agency Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) had informed the Public Prosecutor's Office about the violation of the six-woman rule (which stipulates that a maximum of six women may be impregnated with sperm from the same donor) in two fertility centres.
The step to the Public Prosecutor's Office came after it came to light that over 50 children had been conceived in Belgium with sperm from a Danish donor who ultimately turned out to be a carrier of a cancer-causing genetic defect. It also emerged that the fertility centres had violated the six-woman rule.
Vandenbroucke did not disclose which centres were involved. In one centre, there was initially talk of cases from 2010, which may have expired, but a recent inspection showed that a woman was inseminated with the same sperm in 2014.
In the second centre, Vandenbroucke was told by the FAMHP that an investigation was underway and the Public Prosecutor's Office would be informed.
In a third centre, an inspection recently found that seven women were inseminated with the same donor. Five of these were Belgian women. The centre had incorrectly interpreted that the six-woman rule only applied to women living in Belgium. The FAMHP did not go to the Public Prosecutor's Office, but declared a shortcoming and issued a warning.
