Fertility Clinic Destroys Sperm Frozen By Shane Breen, Irish Cancer Survivor

In 1983, Shane Breen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He was 26-years-old and single at the time. Before he began chemotherapy treatment, the Northern Ireland man decided to freeze a sample of his sperm in case the treatment left him infertile, the BBC reports.

By 2010, Shane had married his wife, Nora, and the couple were ready to become parents. While they had planned to use the frozen sample he had stored at the Belfast Health Trust fertility clinic, the couple was shocked to learn it had been destroyed when the facility made room for more storage.

Officials from the Belfast Health Trust told the BBC they sent letters to notify patients about their options to either use the semen or have it destroyed. But Shane said he never received any notification.

About 35 other men could be in the same predicament, according to the report.

"Our lives have been shattered. We've just been comforting each other... but this has changed our lives forever," Shane told the BBC.

Had the clinic not destroyed the 27-year-old sample, it's certainly possible it would have remained in usable condition to this day.

Shortly after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1987, British man Richard Pott decided to freeze his sperm.

Pott was 21-years-old at the time, but years later, when several rounds of IVF proved unsuccessful for he and wife Rebecca, the couple decided to use the frozen specimen to conceive their second child, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Soon after, baby Vivienne was born.

"We believe this is the longest that sperm has been frozen and used successfully in Britain," Dr. Tarek El-Toukhy of Guy's and St Thomas' hospital told the Telegraph.

Back stateside, at least one man has dedicated his life to helping couples facing similar situations.

Trent Arsenault, a 36-year-old virgin, donates his sperm to help childless couples become parents. So far, Arsenault has fathered 14 children.

"I've committed 100 percent of my sexual energy for producing sperm..." he told Anderson Cooper in January. "So I don't have other activity outside of that."

The Food and Drug Administration has accused Arsenault of allegedly not taking "the legally required precautions to prevent the spread of communicable diseases," but the computer security specialist says the demand for his sperm hasn't been hurt by the cease-and-desist order.

"The demand did go up. As far as I know no one ever ... was ever turned off by it that was mentioned to me," Arsenault told The Huffington Post in an live chat interview. "The FDA has their own reasons for issuing that order ... but I think woman and families can do a good job themselves of selecting who they want to be the biological father of their child."

For more on Shane Breen's story, visit the BBC for the full report.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[marcinpawlus]

02:06 AM on 02/14/2012

the 36 year old virgin killed it for me

[jsonlau]

12:18 AM on 02/14/2012

I've got some you can borrow.

[Raymond Lulling]

11:25 PM on 02/13/2012

I would say there are few really really good reasons to freeze reproductive samples than a disease, or a treatment for disease that might leave you infertile. People like these should always have priority on the list of samples. It really doesn't cost a clinic much to anything to keep a sample frozen solid with several hundred others. Freezer technology has come a long way and the old dipstick in nitrogen just isn't needed any longer.

The only thing that makes sense and is pretty much hinted at with the way this article was written is that the sample was destroyed to make room for samples being stored by men who make a living off selling their messes. If it were not for this taking a higher priority at the clinic then this cancer survivor just might have been able to have the children he had been waiting for.

[Carlene Sorrells]

10:53 PM on 02/13/2012

What a shame. To have gone through the cancer and won, then this. Sad. Surely there is some kind of contract with the clinic to not destroy the sperm. How come a clinic just destroy sperm because they want to "make room" for more sperm? Ridiculous. I hope the clinic is held responsible for this.

[luckyfreeman69]

08:47 PM on 02/13/2012

Its a gosh darn shame thats all I can say...Its hard enough to find any place to leave a sample but then to find out that they didn't save it ...wow..Just tragic..

[JohnR1]

08:07 PM on 02/13/2012

Who gives a fat rat's A%*$$ how is this news?

[Christopher Eric Kulbeda]

08:38 PM on 02/13/2012

I can see why you don't have any fans. It's a human interest story not news. Grow a few more brain cells and maybe you'll get it.

[crazybobmt]

07:42 PM on 02/13/2012

sorry i've got none to spare

[neighborhoodmole]

05:38 PM on 02/13/2012

The clinic should only have destroyed samples if they heard back that is was OK to destroy them, not acted on negative information, which was indistinguishable from no notification received. Let this be a lesson to anyone who wants to store sperm or eggs for possible future use, especially if surgery or chemotherapy means no future donations. Use 2 clinics! The cost may be double, but it should reduce the chance of losing your only samples due to human error or disaster like fire or prolonged power failure.