Donor-conceived births are rising across Europe as fertility rates decline and assisted reproduction becomes more widely accessible — including for same-sex couples and single women. But with many countries struggling to recruit enough local donors, commercial cryobanks are increasingly shipping reproductive cells known as gametes — sperm or egg — across borders, sometimes from the same donor to multiple countries.
Most EU countries have national limits on how many children can be conceived from one donor — ranging from one in Cyprus to 10 in France, Greece, Italy and Poland. However, there is no limit for cross-border donations, increasing the risk of potential health problems linked to a single donor, as well as a psychological impact on children who discover they have dozens or even hundreds of half-siblings.
