Shockingly, examples of fertility doctors who use their own sperm to treat patients through IVF are not that uncommon. As commercial DNA tests grow increasingly popular, more of these doctors are found out, per The Atlantic. This is especially true overseas. In the late 1970s, when Dr. Cline opened his practice, sperm donation was not well regulated, and in many respects, fertility treatment was still in its infancy. Today, sperm donor banks are regulated under the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and donors are screened. But in the U.S., at least, whether or not a donor remains anonymous is personal choice.
Furthermore, in several European countries, there are now limits on how many children a donor can father, but there but there are no such laws in America. In the U.K., children born from sperm donors who are 18 are also now legally able to find out their father’s true identity. Commercial DNA testing services such as 23andMe, among others, have also rendered anonymous sperm donation a thing of the past. Through such tests, individuals are discovering donor half-siblings. Some even match with their donor father, as Endocrine News explains. Such was the case when Dr. Donald Cline’s transgression was uncovered.
