Valerie Van Peel: “We’ve seen this scandal coming for ten years”

Valerie Van Peel, chair of the party, has been sounding the alarm about sperm donor anonymity and lax oversight for over a decade. “We were shouting into the void for years. And now, exactly what we warned about is happening,” she said on Villa Politica.

“Children’s rights ignored for years”

In 2015, Valerie Van Peel submitted a bill proposing the creation of a central database to monitor how many women received donations from the same sperm donor. The goal was to better enforce the so-called “six-woman rule” that has been enshrined in law since 2007.

“But the bill was about much more than that,” she explained. “It also aimed to abolish donor anonymity—because children have the right to know where they come from. Today, they’re the only group in our society that is legally denied that right.”

“Open Vld blocked progress for years”

Van Peel is sharply critical of her former coalition partner. “Open Vld blocked every attempt at progress for years. Jean-Jacques De Gucht and Baroness Sabine de Bethune were in charge of the file. There were many debates about it, even with Minister Maggie De Block. They always claimed we were exaggerating about children’s rights and insisted that the ‘right to have a child’ came first. But let’s be clear—that so-called right doesn’t even exist in law.”

She points to examples abroad, like the case in the Netherlands where a fertility doctor secretly fathered over a hundred children. “It’s always the same pattern: the sector resists reform, but the moment something starts to shift, the horror stories surface.”

Political consensus—at last

Today, it seems there is finally political momentum to end anonymous donation. “But it’s bittersweet,” Van Peel said. “Some families thought they were writing a beautiful story—only to wake up feeling deceived. And many people have known for a long time that this was bound to happen.”

“Parliamentary inquiry? I won’t rule anything out”

The Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) also faces criticism. “The president of the Donor Children association spent years submitting evidence that things were going wrong. She was constantly ignored. Just this April, my colleague Frieda Gijbels asked whether any ‘mass donors’ had been identified. The answer was evasive.”

Van Peel says she will closely monitor the announced audit of the FAMHP. “That audit needs to happen—properly. And there may be accountability to take.”

Even a full parliamentary inquiry is on the table: “I won’t rule anything out. I’m glad this issue is finally getting the attention it deserves. But I fear it won’t be the last of it.”