Doctors are questioning how rigorously sperm donors should be screened, after it was revealed a 23-year-old donor with the heart complaint cardiomyopathy passed it onto one of his biological children, who died from the condition.

BBC News reports that US scientists writing in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’ are calling for cardiomyopathy to be added to the list of diseases that sperm donors must be screened for. Dr Barry Maron of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation says that sperm donors should routinely be screened for the condition, which affects the heart muscle and can lead to sudden death.

At least one in 500 people in the UK could be affected by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and children with one parent affected have a 50:50 chance of inheriting the condition. However, despite this, UK doctors say that screening for the condition might deter men from donating sperm for IVF treatment.

The condition can be symptomless, although some of those affected experience chest pains, palpitations, breathlessness or even fainting. A heart trace can be used to detect the problem and Dr Maron says every potential sperm donor should be given the test.

Other diseases screened for before sperm donation include genetically transmitted diseases such as cystic fibrosis – and sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. However, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is not screened for either in the US or UK.

Dr Allan Pacey of Sheffield University and the British Fertility Society said that the UK had some of the most thorough screening methods, but that screening for cardiomyopathy needed to be debated among fertility experts.

‘This case illustrates why we need to be strict about screening donors,’ said Dr Pacey.

However, Dr Jackson Kirkman-Brown – an expert at the Assisted Conception Unit at Birmingham Women's Hospital – warned:

‘You have to balance the screening with the likelihood of the disease being passed on and decide at what level to stop. Otherwise you could have no donors.’

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