Nicosia, Cyprus. An IVF clinic in the north is facing accusations of negligence after patients claimed their children were conceived using the wrong sperm, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
BBC report outlines families’ allegations
According to the BBC report, several families accuse the clinic of using different donors to those they had selected, meaning children were not as biologically similar as had been planned.
One couple describes suspicions and later findings
“It was pretty soon after James was born that I knew something wasn’t right,” one of the mothers, named Laura, told the BBC.
Laura and her partner Beth conceived two children via the clinic around 15 years ago. They said they were suspicious from the moment their second child, James, was born with dark brown eyes, but only found out their children’s genetic dissimilarities recently.
“We thought we had ordered sperm from Denmark,” the couple said.
Clinic and claimed collaboration with Danish bank
The two women started their in vitro fertilisation process at the Dogus IVF centre in the north, which had reportedly said it collaborated with the Danish sperm and egg bank Cryos International, described as the largest of its kind in the world.
The couple told the BBC they were impressed by the large number of anonymous donors who had reportedly completed health screenings and psychological evaluations.
Selected donor and concerns about children’s features
Beth and Laura said they chose a donor named Finn, described as an athletic, non-smoking Danish man, for both of their children, Kate and James.
They said their doubts increased when their son developed darker features and olive skin.
What steps should patients take to verify donor information during IVF treatment?
