By Euronews
Published on
A post on X claiming that Denmark has introduced an IQ threshold of at least 85 for sperm donors has sparked confusion, debate and memes, but ultimately is misleading.
In reality, Denmark has no legal IQ requirement for sperm donors, although donors must go through a risk assessment interview and medical history review to check for any genetic risk factors.
The country, which is well known for its liberal sperm donation laws, has at least a dozen sperm-bank operations active, despite no definitive public registry.
The two largest that are internationally recognised are the European Sperm Bank and Cryos International, the latter described as the “world’s largest sperm and egg bank”.
Cryos International says its donors must be between 18 and 45 years old, be physically and mentally healthy, undertake legal and medical screening and live in Denmark whilst donating. A single donor can donate to up to 12 families under wider Danish regulations.
Only in 2011 did Cyros introduce another requirement for donors: red-haired donors were turned away because, the company’s founder said, the bank already had plentiful supplies.
The European Sperm Bank has the same age requirements, and says its donors are required to go through a “thorough screening process” that checks for serious hereditary diseases and sexually transmitted infections.
Whilst it’s untrue that all Danish sperm banks and the country of Denmark have IQ requirements, one does: Donor Network, a sperm bank headquartered in the city of Aarhus.
The Cube, Euronews’ fact-checking team, reached out to Donor Network, whose CEO confirmed that the sperm bank has an IQ threshold of 85 and rejects those with a criminal record from donating.
“As far as we know, we are the only bank in the world with these requirements,” CEO of Donor Network, Jakub Knudsen, told The Cube.
Confusion and memes stem from an article written in November by the Danish broadcaster DR, which highlights Donor Network.
In late November, a post containing a rewritten clip from the article was shared widely online, sparking speculation that Donor Network’s requirements expanded to the whole of Denmark.
Controversy abounds
Whilst social media is awash with memes around Donor Network’s requirements, the topic raises some ethical considerations.
According to DR, medical ethicists say screening donors for certain hereditary conditions reduces the likelihood of certain negative outcomes, such as between 2007 and 2018, when a Danish sperm donor with a pathogenic gene mutation that increased the risk of cancer conceived 52 children.
However, according to Daniela Cutas, associate professor of medical ethics at Lund University, screening potential donors for their IQ and criminal record is trickier, because it assumes a higher IQ and a lack of criminal record can be genetically determined.
Broad consensus says that while traits such as a parent’s IQ can influence a child’s intelligence, environmental factors play a major role in shaping a child’s cognitive development.
However, according to Knudsen, scientific literature shows that “IQ is a strong predictor of, not just academic success and income, but also mortality, risk of ADHD, etc. and has a high heritability of 50-80%.”
“We wouldn’t feel comfortable selling these individuals as donors, as we wouldn’t recommend them to our own patients,” he said.
