Sweden | Children were born with stolen sperm – Now the investigation requires the hospital to pay for the DNA tests

Swedish Halland Hospital should offer all children born through artificial insemination the opportunity for a free DNA test because of the sperm scandal. This is how the insider of the hospital presents it work group.

In Halmstad Hospital, which is part of Halland Hospital, serious abuses were revealed last spring regarding artificial inseminations carried out decades ago.

Investigative journalism program of the Swedish public broadcasting company SVT Uppdrag Granskning reported in March 2023 that the semen of several men was used in the hospital between 1985 and 1996 in artificial insemination without the men’s knowledge.

The abuses began to be revealed when the woman, who was born as a result of artificial insemination, began to find out her family roots. The biological father was revealed to be a man who had given a sperm sample for fertility tests.

of SVT according to at least five other children were born with stolen sperm intended for fertility studies.

“

Serious abuses of artificial insemination were revealed last spring.

A sperm scandal the so-called revelation led to an internal and external investigation at the hospital on the southwest coast of Sweden.

Hallandi Hospital’s internal investigation group now suggests that the hospital should offer and pay for DNA tests for those born with artificial insemination.

According to the working group, a DNA test could be done if both the documented sperm donor and the child give their consent.

The recommendations of the investigation group were reported on Thursday, among other things SVT and Dagens Nyheter.

The hospital According to the investigation team, the material on fertilization is so incomplete that it is hardly possible to form a clearer picture of the abuses of the 1980s and 1990s.

According to the investigative team, the hospital has received some contacts from the parties involved.

“We can’t remove the suffering caused, but we can make sure we have support systems and practices in place to manage the consequences,” says a leading doctor Anders Åkvist in a press release published on Thursday.

Artificial inseminations were performed at Halland Hospital between 1974 and 1996. Between 1985 and 1996, when the abuse is suspected to have taken place, a total of 31 children were conceived with donated sperm, according to the hospital.

of SVT the program of investigative journalism has revealed other abuses in fertility treatments in Sweden from the 1970s to the 1990s.

In addition to the revelations at Halmstad Hospital, Uppdrag Gränskning revealed last Novemberthat a Swedish doctor illegally used his own semen in fertilization treatments in the 1970s and 1980s.

As a result of the treatments, at least seven children were born in northern Sweden.