Krio Institute insists Danish sperm samples carry ‘no additional risk’

The Krio Institute said on Saturday that the samples brought over from Denmark had been tested and handled more strictly than Hungarian regulations would have required.

“The defective genes found in the sample are not included in Hungary’s standard testing procedures, so if these samples had been collected in Hungary and not in Denmark, we would not even know about the defect,” the institute said.

The alert from the European Union had only ensured the system’s safe operation, they added.

The samples collected in Denmark were more thoroughly tested genetically than Hungarian ones, therefore the use of these samples by Hungarian women desiring a pregnancy are not in any way riskier than the ones taken at home, it said.

Sperm donation in Hungary does not meet local demand, the institute added.

The institute followed European Union directive which calls for free use of sperm donations from within the community’s states, Krio said, adding that the ANTSZ had known about their operations since the start in 2013.

Hungarian laws currently do not allow semen to be imported from another country and the same donors can only father four offspring while in Denmark this limit is 12. In addition, a face-to-face meeting with the donor is a requirement in Hungary, which is not possible when the donors are from abroad, the ANTSZ said.