The Health Ministry is updating old sperm bank regulations in Israel and setting limits on donations due to a significant rise in demand, a decline in donations themselves, and cases in which diseases were transmitted via sperm donations abroad, the ministry said on Tuesday.
In Israel, 17 sperm banks currently operate nationwide. Of these, 16 operate within hospitals, three in private hospitals, and 13 in public hospitals, and one additional private sperm bank operates outside a hospital framework.
Alongside donations from Israeli donors, some of the sperm banks import sperm from donors living abroad. At present, sperm may be imported from eight sperm banks overseas, which are listed on the Health Ministry website.
In recent years, there has been a sharp rise in demand for sperm donations, mainly from single women and same-sex couples. At the same time, the number of Israeli donors has not increased and, therefore, does not meet the demand. The difficulty in recruiting donors has intensified due to stricter medical and regulatory requirements, resulting in only about 10%-15% of those interested being deemed suitable to donate.
Added to this is a significant increase in costs, due to the need to perform numerous medical and genetic tests. There has also been an increase in the prices of sperm donations from abroad, which burdens both the sperm banks and the recipients.
Alongside these trends, exceptional incidents have been recorded both in Israel and worldwide, in which sperm was used from donors who carried hereditary diseases that had not been identified in advance. Incidents of this kind, some of which were reported by the Health Ministry, illustrate the possible risks and the need for tighter mechanisms of control, reporting, and information-sharing between the banks and the Health Ministry.
How the Health Ministry addresses concerns, challenges in sperm donation
One of the primary tools designed to address these challenges is the national coded registry for recording sperm donors, which was established at the Health Ministry in 2021. The registry is intended to facilitate the orderly tracking of sperm donations in Israel, prevent situations in which the same donor donates at more than one bank, and enable the secure transfer of information between sperm banks.
Within this mechanism, the directors of the sperm banks are obligated to report to the registry’s manager on every man who is a candidate to be a sperm donor. Only after verifying that the donor has not donated previously at another bank and has not been disqualified for a medical or other reason is approval given to accept him as a donor.
The registry also serves as a medical control tool. The Health Ministry carefully records genetic defects that are discovered in offspring or in the donor themselves. According to the findings, the ministry may disqualify further use of the donor’s sperm, or, in certain cases, allow it subject to genetic counseling.
The ministry also ensures that relevant information is transferred to the sperm banks and the IVF units. Since the registry opened, about 600 Israeli sperm donors have been approved. The registry also centralizes the matter of importing sperm from foreign donors and enables cross-cutting oversight of the field.
The updated circular of the Health Ministry director general is intended to comprehensively regulate the activity of sperm banks in Israel. Its main purpose is to maintain the quality and safety of the treatment given to those in need of sperm donation and the health of the offspring to be born, while preventing harm to the sperm donors themselves.
Additional guidelines include allocating donations to recipients, releasing sperm from the bank, managing medical records, and regulating additional subjects such as depositing sperm for self-use, storing sperm of minors, retrieving sperm from a deceased person, and rules of safety, confidentiality, and information security.
Among the main changes now open for public comment, it was determined that the number of families that can receive a donation from the same donor will be limited to 12. In addition, donations will be permitted to five women who are interested in fertility preservation only.
Minimum medical criteria for donor acceptance were defined, including obtaining full information from the medical file, conducting comprehensive genetic testing, and storing the donor’s DNA for future testing. These requirements apply to both Israeli donors and foreign donors.
The procedure further stipulates that recipients must also undergo the genetic tests included in the health basket to minimize the risk of genetic diseases in their offspring. Any genetic finding will be reported to the Health Ministry to assess the continued suitability of the donation and to prevent disease in any additional offspring.
It was further determined to detail the minimum information that will be provided to recipients about the donor, including religion as declared by him, additional halachic information if provided, indication of whether the donor is a kohen, and whether he knows that he is disqualified from the congregation or of lineage or was refused permission to marry by the Rabbinate.
Although, as of today, only anonymous sperm donation may be given and received in Israel, the circular allows the recipient and the donor to note on the consent form that they wish to consider in the future approving the donation to become a non-anonymous donation, subject to the law and the legal situation that will apply at that time.
The circular also updates the regulation in the case of a request to clarify kinship between spouses when one or both were born from sperm donation. It also stipulates that the consent of the recipient and of the spouse or partner, if any, must be obtained for the use of donor sperm, and that they agree and declare that the children to be born will bear their name and be regarded as their children for all purposes, including with regard to alimony and inheritance.
As part of the amendment, a recommendation is also proposed that the couple consider preparing a will, for the avoidance of doubt.
According to the updated circular, men will be able to donate sperm only up to age 38. A married donor or one in a common-law relationship will be required to declare that he has informed his wife or partner about the donation, a step intended to reduce the risk of consanguineous marriages among the offspring in the future.
In the area of importing sperm from abroad, stringent requirements were defined, including full equivalence between the genetic tests and the tests to rule out infectious diseases required of Israeli donors and those required of donors from abroad.
At the same time, significant easings were set in the import mechanism, while maintaining the safety of treatment. After receiving an import approval from a sperm bank abroad, all licensed sperm banks in Israel will be able to import from that bank without the need for a separate procedure for each institution.
Prof. Talia Eldar Geva, head of the Department of Fertility and Reproduction at the Health Ministry, emphasized that the update seeks to create a more uniform, transparent, and safer framework for the activity of sperm banks in Israel, one that will meet the changing needs of the public and minimize as much as possible medical, genetic, and ethical risks in this particularly sensitive field.