Albon, also known as Joe Donor, offers a paperwork-free sperm donor service and claims to have fathered more than 180 children. He was paid £100 and a £100 Amazon gift card, and is the genetic father of the child involved.
Handing down his judgment this week in Re N (Paternity: Unregulated Sperm Donor) [2026] EWHC 878 (Fam), Sir Andrew McFarlane, the outgoing president of the Family Division, said: ‘Parliament has been explicit in making it unlawful to process and/or distribute sperm without a licence.’
He noted Parliament has provided a man who donates under the Human and Fertilisation of Embryos Act 1990 scheme ‘is not to be treated as the father of the child’, and that Albon advertised himself as providing a sperm donation service.
He concluded: ‘It seems most unlikely that Parliament would have taken a starkly different approach to a non-licenced donor who has acted as Mr Albon has done on so many occasions... I, therefore, hold that it would be contrary to public policy for Mr Albon to be treated as the father of N by the court granting a declaration of paternity naming him.’
By agreement, the court also declared the mother’s former partner, a transgender man, who was registered as ‘father’ on the birth certificate, was not the father.
Connie Atkinson, family law partner at Kingsley Napley, who advised the mother, said: ‘This case provides another important lesson for those considering using a sperm donor to conceive.
‘As modern family set-ups become ever more prevalent, as a family lawyer I am involved in an increasing number of disputes over parental rights and contact arrangements. Preconception agreements are not legally binding but encourage a dialogue about all intended parents’ hopes and serve as an important record of the parents’ intentions at the time.’
Regulated fertility clinics keep records, provide screening, offer advice and restrict each donor to a maximum of ten families to reduce the risk of consanguinity issues when the children grow up.
