A public hospital in Osaka has admitted it stopped storing frozen sperm from two men without consulting them first after the doctor in charge moved to another institution.
Osaka City General Hospital officials said Wednesday the hospital began storing the sperm of the clients, who are in their 30s and from Osaka and Nara prefectures, in December 2003 and November 2004 free of charge before they underwent radiation treatment, which may result in the loss of sperm production.
However, the hospital terminated the frozen preservation around last September after the doctor, who was deputy chief of the hospital's department of gynecology, moved to a different hospital in April 2012.
The hospital said it told the man in Osaka Prefecture in 2012 to find another place to keep the frozen sperm but did not sufficiently explain the situation, the officials said.
It was not sure if it had told the Nara Prefecture man about the termination.
The facility has stored frozen sperm from 13 men, including the two affected by the communication blunder, since it first provided the facility in April 2003.
Of the 13, the hospital has gained consent from eight men to end preservation of their sperm, while three are now deceased.