Australian sperm donor fathered 60 children under multiple aliases

A sperm donor in Australia fathered over 60 children, after he donated under four different aliases.

The discovery was made after attendees at a community barbecue event for new parents noted how similar their children looked. While the identity of the donor has not been revealed, it is understood he is of mixed ancestry. Many of the parents who had used sperm from the donor were LGBTQ.

Dr Anne Clark, a fertility specialist at Fertility First in Sydney, said her clinic used the sperm donor only once. However, she added that he had also offered his services through a number of unofficial and unregulated means, such as Facebook groups, and received gifts for these sperm donations: 'We know he got gifts, holidays – all a complete criminal offence,' she told the Independent.

As in the UK, it is illegal in Australia for someone to sell or receive gifts for giving another person organs or tissues, an offence that has a jail sentence of up to 15 years in Australia.

The discovery comes amid growing concerns in the country about 'prolific donors' creating more families than legally allowed – a limit which ranges between five and ten, in different parts of Australia.

Australia currently lacks a national system for tracking donor conceptions consistently or donor conceptions that occur outside of fertility clinics. Each state and territory has different legislation on donor anonymity, making it difficult to pinpoint the number of donations.

Recently the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand joined calls for a national register in the country.

'We need a central register across Australia, and a central bank so that everyone operates out of the same one … and it's not dependent on which doctor they go to,' Rebecca Kerner, the chair of the Australian and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association told the Guardian, earlier this month.

Professor Luk Rombauts, president of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand later said in a statement: 'With online sperm donations, there are no appropriate screening protocols for sexually transmitted or genetically linked diseases, no professional counselling to help people make informed decisions about this procedure, along with the potential of frightening legal ramifications.

'Nobody seems to be asking how donor-conceived children will feel growing up knowing that they are part of a large group of half-siblings, and it also raises the real prospect of accidental co-sanguinity.'