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Sperm donor infects at least 9 babies

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 9 (UPI) -- An anonymous sperm donor passed a rare illness to at least nine babies, prompting Danish officials to consider more stringent testing, officials said.

The children were born with a potentially dangerous, inheritable disease called Neurofibromatosis type 1, the Copenhagen Post reported. The disease causes nerve tissue to grow tumors, potentially leading to nodules beneath the skin, reduced vision and deformed bones.

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The sperm came from a man who donated at the Danish sperm bank Nordic Cryobank between 2004 and 2006. His sperm was used through 2009 and distributed to women in the United States, Sweden and Belgium. The man didn't know he carried the illness.

Officials said it didn't appear Nordisk Cryobank broke any rules, but director Peter Bower said the company is looking at more advanced screening options.

"We need to take a look at where the technology is going, because within the next few years it will be possible to perform a simple test, the so-called Next Generation Screening, that will make it possible to test for 500 illnesses at once, though we should be wary that we can never lower the risk to zero," Bower said.

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Having children comes with no guarantees and increased screening might not be the answer, the report said.

"Anyone who chooses to have children risks having a handicapped child. It's a part of life and as long as we continue to want to have children, we have to live with the risk that something may go wrong," Lotte Hvas, a member of the Danish Council of Ethics, told Jyllands-Posten.

"It's very fashionable to believe that you protect yourself against everything. But one cannot ask society to guarantee that you will give birth to a healthy child. Life is perilous, even having when having children with your own partner, and not sperm from a sperm bank," Hvas said.

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