Sperm donor with a cancer-causing mutation fathered nearly 200 children, some of the children have already died

Serious stuff! Food for thought! Apparently, this particular genetic mutation was known since 2023!

Were the would be parents informed about how many children were fathered by the same donor? Would this information be provided if a would be parent asks about it?

How good is the screening of donor semen and donor health?

Had I learnt that the same donor has already fathered dozens or even more than 100 children, I would have had some second thoughts as a would be parent.

"In an alarming case that researchers say should spark regulatory changes, a sperm donor who unknowingly carried a cancer-causing genetic mutation has fathered at least 197 children across Europe. According to an investigation published earlier this week by a group of 14 European news organizations, some children have already died.

The donor is reportedly healthy, but before he was born, some of his cells mutated, damaging a gene known as TP53. This gene encodes what’s known as a tumor suppressor protein, which regulates how quickly cells grow and divide. People missing a functional version of that gene are at risk of Li-Fraumeni syndrome, an inherited disorder that greatly increases the risk of developing cancer, particularly during childhood. ...

The new investigation builds on work by cancer geneticist Edwige Kasper, who learned in 2023 of a sperm donor with a “variant of unknown significance” in TP53. ... At the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Genetics this past May, Kasper announced that the donor had fathered at least 67 children, some of whom had already developed leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. ..."

ScienceAdviser