A Belgian fertility clinic has exceeded the legal limits on how many families can receive an egg from the same donor, according to the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAGG).
A list of so-called 'Rapid Alerts' from the agency shows that the clinic inseminated too many women with eggs from a donor on two occasions.
In both cases, eggs from the same donor were used to create children in more than the legally permitted six families at that clinic.
The federal medicine agency announced that it has received multiple indicators that the legal limits had been breached.
"Over the past few months, the FAGG has been contacted on several occasions regarding instances where donor quotas have been exceeded," the agency says. "These instances were identified both at certain fertility centres and at national level. They concern both the centres’ own donors and foreign donors."
It often pertains to breaches across multiple fertility clinics, before the centralised database was founded in 2024.
By law, only six families are allowed to share a donor. While there is no limit to the number of children a donor can have within those families, limiting the families that use the same donor helps avoid people who, without realising it, are descended from the same donor from later entering into a relationship and having children together.
The FAGG revealed earlier this year that it had found 35 breaches of the limit of sperm donations within 7 clinics in Belgium.
Clinics can be fined up to €80,000 for breaching the limit on families per donor. Doctors responsible for breaches can also face prison sentences of up to five years.
