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Britain Faces Risk of Sperm Shortage in Event of No-Deal Brexit

Britain Faces Risk of Sperm Shortage in Event of No-Deal Brexit

(Bloomberg) -- A curious fact emerged in the pile of technical documents the U.K. government put together should it crash out of the European Union without a deal: a shortage of sperm.

It came to light that the country imports donated sperm, primarily from commercial sperm banks in the U.S. (4,000 samples) and Denmark (3,000 samples). This detail was included in the document dealing with the quality and safety of organs if there’s no Brexit deal.

What happens after March 2019, should things not go as hoped? There will be more red tape. The U.K. would become a “third country” so U.K. importers need “new written agreements” with the relevant fertility clinics.

To contact the reporter on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in London at fjackson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stuart Biggs at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net, Robert Hutton

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.