Fertility clinic in Japan uses sperm from kins in IVF

To help married couples conceive, a fertility clinic in central Japan has been conducting in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) using sperms from close relatives, including father of the husbands, resulting in 118 babies between 1996 and 2013.
The Suwa Maternity Clinic in Nagano Prefecture has carried out IVF for 110 couples using sperm from fathers of husbands, with 95 of the women becoming pregnant and 79 giving birth, reported the Kyodo news agency.
Among them, 17 gave birth twice, while others gave birth for a third or fourth time, the report said.
146 couples received sperm from close relatives at the hospital due to the husbands' infertility, said Yahiro Netsu, the clinic's director.

Of them, 110 couples received sperm from the husband's father, 28 couples were provided sperm of the husband's brothers and eight couples from other close relatives, he said.
Netsu is expected to announce the outcome of the fertilisation at a meeting of the Japan Society of Fertilisation and Implantation in Tokyo on Thursday.
For more than sixty years, artificial insemination using sperms from anonymous donor has been conducted in Japan but such a fertility treatment using sperm provided by relatives remains controversial due to its potential to complicate family relationships, the report said.