Reacción a "Reactions: Sperm donor sued amid claims that he fathered 550 children"

In Spain, for more than 20 years, the number of descendants that a donor can have has been set at six; the reasons for this are both population-related (to avoid creating families between half-siblings) and health-related (if donors suffer from a late-onset genetic disease, the number of people affected in the following generation will be limited).  

The SIRHA (the Information System for Assisted Human Reproduction), i.e. the registry of the Ministry of Health, will, when fully functional, make it possible to trace every sample, every treatment and every donor, and will prevent events such as those in the Netherlands from occurring. In fact, a unique traceability code is assigned at European Union level and an alarm would be triggered even if the person moved abroad to donate in another country. This system will be fully operational and mandatory in the coming months. However, for decades now, clinics in Spain have been keeping a record of donations and the children born from them and, in case of doubt or suspicion, they share this information with other establishments. By means of a regular feedback system to the sperm and egg banks, donors are withdrawn from circulation as soon as the quota is reached.