An Australian mother who has five children from the same sperm donor father has discovered he could have fathered up to 1,000 children.
Shannon Ashton used freedom of information to obtain copies of Queensland Fertility Group’s sperm freezing data after she chanced upon several donor siblings of her own children in her local community.
She discovered that her children’s biological father had donated 239 times in four years.
The documents indicate that each sample can be divided into four separate vials, each capable of producing more than one embryo at a time.
Ms Ashton’s case is one of many that have rocked Queensland in recent months, prompting Health Minister Shannon Fentiman to order an investigation into the IVF industry across the state to crack down on “cowboy” operators.
In another case, Queensland same-sex couple Anastasia and Lexie Gunn are suing the same IVF clinic giant, claiming they used the wrong sperm to father two of their sons.
Shannon Ashton (pictured) has five children who she conceived using sperm donations from a fertility clinic in Queensland, where she has since discovered a man made hundreds of donations
Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman (pictured) has ordered an investigation into the state’s IVF industry to target “cowboy” operators
Ms Fentiman said she was “appalled” by some of the allegations made against some IVF providers and had directed the Ombudsman to urgently investigate the fertility industry in the state.
The father of Ms. Ashton’s children is “Donor 188,” a blue-eyed “surfie” type who she says contributed to her children’s athletic talent.
“I always knew he was a popular donor and my own research had shown he probably had dozens of children, but these figures broke me,” Ms Ashton told The Courier Mail this week.
“The document shows that his sample made four vials in one day, but in some cases a donation could be split up to 16 times.” I just keep it at the lower probability that my children’s donor would have 956 children or could even have more than 1,000 children.”
“I would never have used it if I had any idea what was going on. It’s not the donor’s fault, but I trusted the process.”
Ms Ashton said that while she was extremely grateful for the opportunity to become a parent, she now worries that her children will have to run background checks on any potential romantic partner to ensure they are not biologically related.
She said she was constantly “sick with worry” about “accidental incest” because her children and other donor siblings were all about the same age and in the same area.
She previously revealed how, after meeting and becoming friends with another child’s parents at the daycare, she learned that they had also used the same donor.
Ms Ashton’s children are now aged 19, 17, 13, nine and six.
Ms Ashton described Donor 188 as the “quintessential Australian sporty guy”. His profile stated that he had blonde hair and blue eyes, liked surfing and was interested in science and mathematics (pictured is the bottle from donor 188).
Ms Fentiman said she would work with Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath to introduce legislation that would regulate the industry and bring the state into line with the frameworks of NSW, Victoria, WA, SA and the Northern Territory.
In New South Wales the number of sperm donors is limited to five women, in Victoria to ten women and in Western Australia to five families. However, Queensland currently has no laws guiding the fertility industry, so there are no legal donor caps in place.
IVF companies in the state often have their own ethical guidelines, such as following the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee’s recommendation that “a maximum of ten donor families per sperm donor” is acceptable.
Ms Ashton and two other mothers who have lodged complaints with the Queensland Health Ombudsman met with Ms Fentiman this week.
The Health Minister has directed the Office of the Health Ombudsman to launch an urgent investigation into fertility clinics in the state.
Queensland Fertility Group chief executive Melanie Sibson told the newspaper she was aware of Ms Ashton’s ombudsman complaint and that “today’s QFG donor conception guidelines only allow a limit of 10 families”.
Chron Australia has contacted Queensland Fertility Group and Ms Ashton for comment.