BBC Finds 30 Children Conceived With Wrong Donors at Cyprus IVF Clinics, 15 Linked to Dogus
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 18
BBC Finds 30 Children Conceived With Wrong Donors at Cyprus IVF Clinics, 15 Linked to Dogus
2 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 18
Summary
At least 30 children, most of them British, are now feared to have been conceived with the wrong sperm or egg donors at northern Cyprus IVF clinics, sharply expanding a scandal the BBC first reported in March.
Eleven children have taken DNA tests showing ancestry from Turkey or nearby countries, contradicting promises that many families had selected screened Western European donors and suggesting the requested donors were not used.
Dogus IVF Centre accounts for 15 of the cases, and Cryos International said it has no record of delivering sperm there despite years of clinic advertising; the sperm bank also blacklisted Dogus in 2016.
Three Dogus-linked staff members — owner Sevket Alpturk, doctor Firdevs Uguz Tip and coordinator Julie Hodson — were repeatedly involved in patients' care; Firdevs denies wrongdoing, while the others did not respond.
Fertility experts told the BBC that repeated donor mix-ups on this scale point to negligence or deception rather than rare error, while northern Cyprus authorities say they opened an investigation but have released no update.