Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram, has admitted that he plans to share his billionaire fortune among more than 100 children he’s fathered.
The 40-year-old Russian media tycoon, who is thought to be worth around $13.9bn (£10.3bn), revealed to reporters that he has been donating his sperm for more than 15 years, which has resulted in over 100 children.
Although Durov is officially the father of six children between three partners, he claims that dozens of his offspring can be found across 12 other countries because of his sperm donation efforts.
“The clinic, where I started donating sperm 15 years ago to help a friend, told me that more than 100 babies had been conceived this way in 12 countries,” he told French political magazine Le Point.
He added: “I want to specify that I make no difference between my children: there are those who were conceived naturally and those who come from my sperm donations.”
“They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don't want them to tear each other apart after my death.”
However, Durov also told the outlet that he wanted his children to live normal lives first and that they wouldn’t be able to access any of his money for atleast 30 years.
“I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, not to be dependent on a bank account,” he added.
Over the last few years, there have been several bizarre stories involving men who have fathered countless children around the world through sperm donor programmes.
One such story included a man who fathered 180 children and was demanding parental rights, while another had a rare genetic variant that resulted in 10 of his children being diagnosed with cancer.
Some people have voiced concern over the prevalence of unregulated sperm donor programmes and what this could mean for families around the world. There has even been a Netflix documentary about one prolific sperm donor who seemingly deceived families and sperm banks, posing a serious risk of half-siblings unknowingly meeting each other in real life.
So, what are the laws surrounding this?
Sperm donor laws in the UK
Many families and women turn to sperm donors in order to conceive, reportedly resulting in more than 2,800 children born in 2019.
However there are some restrictions. This guidance is implemented to reduce the risk of unknown biological siblings unknowingly forming relationships.
According to the NHS, sperm donors in the UK must be between 18 and 46, and are limited to the creation of up to 10 families; however, there is no limit on how many children can be born from the sperm donor in each of those families.
As long as the sperm is donated through a licensed clinic, donors have no legal obligations to the children that are fathered from the person’s sperm. However, if the donor uses an unregulated clinic, they may be at risk legally of being considered the father.
What’s more, children born to sperm donors in the UK are legally allowed to request the identity of their biological parents when they turn 18 under a law that was passed in 2005. It’s also worth noting that people may use ancestry sites to also find out details of their biological family.
In the UK, it’s also illegal to pay for donor sperm, but you can pay for a donor’s expenses up to £45 per sperm.
Sperm donor laws in Europe
Most countries have strict screening processes to make sure sperm donors are suitable to donate their sperm.
According to the University of Sheffield, just four in 100 men get accepted onto such programmes around the world, while nearly a fifth of applicants were rejected as they carried a genetic disease.
As it stands, rules across Europe vary when it comes to limits on sperm donations.
For example, donors in Cyprus can father one family, while donors in Italy, Greece, France and Poland can father up to 10 families.
Although the UK and most European countries have strict laws limiting the number of donation cycles a sperm donor can be part of, things get a little complicated when operating between various countries.
What are the dangers of this?
It’s actually pretty difficult for registered clinics, which are often private facilities in foreign countries, to keep up with a donor’s actions in other countries.
What’s more, there are even online sperm banks now that can help families get sperm from different countries, which makes things even more difficult to monitor.
While it’s rare for instances of ‘serial sperm donors’, these scenarios can and do happen.
Eight EU countries are now trying to encourage an EU limit on the number of children fathered by a single donor in an effort to reduce the risk of half-siblings unknowingly meeting each other, and to reduce the risk of genetic diseases being passed on.
One official from Belgium pushing for an EU limit said: “This issue has been left unresolved for too long.”
