The sperm bank run by Rijnstate hospital in Arnhem has broken the rules and allowed one donor to father 50 children, the Volkskrant said on Friday.

The paper bases its claims on a confidential report drawn up by health inspectors  in 2014.

Currently, sperm donors in the Netherlands are allowed to father no more than 25 children. However, 15 donors to the Arnhem centre had an average of 36 children each. In total, the 15 fathered 548 children to 369 mothers.

The Volkskrant said the hospital broke the rules because many women wanted a second child by the same father, but that sloppy administration procedures were also to blame.

Registration

‘Our registration system was not properly set up to deal with multiple births from one donor to the same woman,’ the hospital told the paper in a statement.

However, the hospital failed to inform all the women and children involved about the problem to ‘spare them unnecessary damage’, the paper said.

Next week judges will rule in the case of a sperm bank doctor who is accused of fathering dozens of children himself. Women who suspect he fathered their children are demanding a dna test to find out the truth.