Medicine:Onselling of sperm

Onselling of sperm is the practice of a sperm bank selling or otherwise trading or passing its surplus stocks of sperm for use by another entity. The practice is subject to the laws of particular jurisdictions involved in the trade. Sperm banks routinely collect and process sperms from sperm donors which they may use either in fertility treatments or onsell or otherwise pass on to another entity. The onselling may be part of, or even the main business of a particular sperm bank, or may arise where a sperm bank has collected and stored more sperm than it can use within nationally set limits. In the latter case a sperm bank may onsell or export the sperm from a particular donor that it can no longer use within the jurisdiction in which it operates, for use in another jurisdiction, subject to relevant laws. In practice, wherever possible, a sperm bank will use or sell on all the samples stored from a particular donor. Sperm banks which limit the use of a donor's samples within its own jurisdiction, or to a particular number of births, will generally limit the time for which a man may donate his sperm to obtain only the number of samples they intend to use.

Sperm may also be onsold for research or educational purposes, usually after the number of births from the donor concerned has reached the national legal maximum. Sperm may also be used for genetic and fertility testing, and for research into birth control.

United Kingdom situation

UK Sperm banks are permitted to export donor sperm, subject, where exports are to the EU, to the EU Tissues Directive and subject to the sperm banks obtaining the consent of donors even where the donor has been responsible for producing the maximum UK number of ten families. Sperm banks may also store and use sperm for periods in excess of ten years. Donor sperm may also be exported outside the EU but only to clinics and only where those clinics de facto follow the EU rules, including the traceability of samples used in treatments. The combination of these changes enables sperm banks to export sperm and, subject to their obtaining consent to import samples, they may exchange straws with other fertility centres. Many sperm banks or facility clinics exchange vials with overseas clinics and, where they have access to export markets, they will usually maximise the use of a donor by exchanging or otherwise selling vials for export.

Embryos may also be on-sold. These are usually spare embryos which are created through IVF treatment where a woman achieves the number of pregnancies she requires and the resulting embryos may therefore be disposed of. Donor sperm (and donor eggs) may be used in IVF treatments, and as many as eighteen eggs may be fertilized using one vial of donor sperm, although only the most viable of these will be subsequently implanted in a woman in an attempt to achieve a pregnancy. In the case of the UK, the consent of the donors of both the egg and the sperm which were used to create the embryo must be obtained.

On-selling is normally only appropriate where the donor remains anonymous. Sperm banks purchasing sperm samples may in turn on-sell these to other sperm banks and often engage in the process of exchanging samples with other sperm banks. This is a common practice which enables sperm banks to offer a wider variety of donors, as well as to on-sell samples from donors who have reached the maximum permitted number of offspring imposed by, or on, that clinic. On-selling may therefore give rise to numerous pregnancies being produced from individual donors which can sometimes total 100 or more (see above 'Limitation' and the associated link) particularly where a sperm donor donates his sperm for a period of two years or more and where his samples are prepared for IVF use. Sperm from certain donors, such as those with particular blood groups, physical features or intellect, may also be more in demand than sperm from other donors. However, in every case rules as to use and the limitation on the number of pregnancies which apply locally will reduce the risk of consanguinity. The HFEA rules require that records must be kept of every use of donor sperm in the UK and there must be traceability where samples are exported and used abroad. However, individual donors will not be at risk of knowing the large number of births that were produced from the samples they donated. A change in the law in the UK with effect from 1st July 2022 means that sperm may now be stored and used for up to fifty-five years. Where donors have previously given unlimited use of their stored sperm or have had to renew their consent every ten years, this new limit of fifty-five years will apply, as it will to new donors registering after 1st July 2022 unless they choose to impose a shorter limit. The new rule will enable sperm banks to store and export or exchange samples for longer periods and it will mean that the samples from an individual donor will not be required to be used up within a shorter period.

See also

• Sperm donation laws by country