Donor withdrawing consent

[OneUniqueWriter]

We are completely heartbroken. Last year, we were blessed to welcome our beautiful baby girl, and this year we had planned to try for a second child using frozen embryos from the same UK sperm donor, all fully HFEA compliant, we wanted our children to be full siblings, and we were so excited about the future

Today, we were told that the donor has withdrawn his consent, and in 12 months the embryos will be destroyed, i feel utterly devastated and lost I keep hoping he might change his mind, but I know it’s anonymous and out of our control

I don’t understand why this has happened,he seemed perfect on paper, and we had such hope, I feel heartbroken and completely at a loss for what to do next, I’m sorry if I’m rambling, I just needed to share this with people who might understand

I'm really sorry your in this situation. Its awful to have news like this and not know why, and not be able to ask questions. Because there could be a very good reason for doing so.
Could it potentially be to do with number of births? I'm not sure if they'd give the reason in this case.
I know the doner I used had to withdraw consent because I discovered dc had a rare genetic disorder (which needed both biological parents to be carriers). I dont know how they relayed that information to other families affected or the donor.

We know that, including our daughter, there are two children from this donor, the clinic said they cannot provide a reason for his withdrawal, which is hard not knowing, I suppose if it were something serious, like a genetic disorder, that information could be shared to protect our daughter

I keep wondering what if at 18 my daughter wants a relationship with him or contact what if won't respond - he has withdrawn and he has been told that we have frozen embroyes to create siblings - so he has full awareness of his actions. He knows he will be causing us hurt and pain and taking away our daughters opportunity for full siblings

I had a terrible experience with UK fertility clinic and ended up going to Prague, so this made me curious about UK vs Czech law regarding donor consent after embryos were already made. I asked Perplexity AI to research it. This is long, but the summary is EVERYONE STOP USING UK CLINICS and go to Prague. The cheaper price makes up for the airfare/hotel. Here’s the info:

What happened in that Mumsnet post is legally possible in the UK, but the specific rule you’re worried about (donor withdrawing consent after embryos are made) does not work the same way in Czech law, including Prague clinics.[spermdonation +2]
How UK law allows this
Under UK law (HFE Act and HFEA rules):
• A donor can withdraw or vary consent to the use or storage of their sperm, eggs, or embryos created from them at any point until the embryos are actually transferred into a woman’s body (or used for research/training).[ngalaw +2]
• If consent is withdrawn, embryos cannot be used in treatment and normally must be allowed to perish after a defined period, once all “interested parties” have been notified.[hfea +1]
• This means: even if embryos already exist and you have a child from the same donor, the donor can still stop further use before the next transfer, which is exactly the scenario you saw on Mumsnet.[spermdonation +1]
So in the UK, embryos created with donor sperm are not absolutely “yours” in the sense of being guaranteed usable, because the donor’s consent remains a live requirement up to transfer.
Czech rules: donor vs. recipient control
In the Czech Republic, assisted reproduction is regulated mainly by Act No. 373/2011 Coll. on Specific Health Services. Key points:[sujb +1]

How UK law allows this
Under UK law (HFE Act and HFEA rules):
• A donor can withdraw or vary consent to the use or storage of their sperm, eggs, or embryos created from them at any point until the embryos are actually transferred into a woman’s body (or used for research/training).[ngalaw +2]
• If consent is withdrawn, embryos cannot be used in treatment and normally must be allowed to perish after a defined period, once all “interested parties” have been notified.[hfea +1]
• This means: even if embryos already exist and you have a child from the same donor, the donor can still stop further use before the next transfer, which is exactly the scenario you saw on Mumsnet.[spermdonation +1]
So in the UK, embryos created with donor sperm are not absolutely “yours” in the sense of being guaranteed usable, because the donor’s consent remains a live requirement up to transfer.

There was a lot more but I had trouble copy/pasting. Long story short is in Czechia, the embryos are YOURS and they are not in UK. You can use any AI chatbot to get the details.

This doesn’t help your disappointment but I hope it can help someone else who reads this is future to choose Czechia over UK for IVF.