Race to track down '160 children' of sperm donor as women who discovered they were sisters join forces to avert inbreeding crisis in French city

A prolific French sperm donor is believed to be the father of up to 160 children as multiple sisters join forces to avert an inbreeding crisis. University student Josephine*, 38, tracked down her father after confronting her mother over her suspicion that he was a sperm donor. But after finally meeting her biological father, it was revealed that the Toulouse woman could have dozens more siblings. Local media coverage led to many other children coming forward to say they believed the man was also their father and Josephine has now discovered 17 half siblings. She is now appealing more people with doubts to come forward and fears the case could lead to an inbreeding crisis in the city. The Toulouse woman began to doubt her origins after her law professor told the class that 'a third of the people in the lecture hall, the man they thought was their father wasn't actually their biological father'.That's when she said to herself: 'Damn, that's my story.'Josephine, whose real name has been withheld by French media, went home and asked her mother for the truth, when her mother burst into tears, according to RTL. A French university student from Toulouse who discovered her father was a sperm doctor is racing to track down her long-lost half siblings. Pictured: Shops and cafes in Toulouse (stock image)That's when her mother revealed who her father really was. Josephine said: 'She told me, "You were conceived through sperm donation, your father isn't your father."'The law student then decided to track down her biological father and before long she was able to narrow her search down to him being a doctor in her home town of Toulouse. She told RTL he is a 'well known man in the Pied-Noir community who returned from French Algeria with an Italian name.' And when she approached him, he admitted to being a sperm donor, which left Josephine 'delighted'. But what the university student probably didn't expect was to discover she possibly had up to 159 half siblings. Her biological father told her he had 'donated every ten days for 20 years', the man's friend, a gynecologist, predicted that his sperm could have helped to conceive up to 160 children, which left Josephine shocked.There was essentially no legislation around sperm donation in France in the 1970s. Before 1973, sperm donation was typically organised by individual doctors until a professor, Georges David established the first CECOS (Centre d'étude et de conservation du sperme humain) at Bicêtre Hospital. Only in 1994 did the first major bioethics legislation regulating gamete donation come into being. These centres created a more organised national system but initially operated according to professional and ethical guidelines rather than a comprehensive national law.She said: 'It was difficult at first. I found one who had studied exactly the same subjects as me, the same master's degree at the same university. 'I thought to myself, "In every lecture hall, every year, there must be one of my half-sisters."'Local media coverage of Josephine's story led to dozens of potential half siblings getting in touch with her to say they could be related. At one point, she had been receiving 40 emails per day with people claiming they could share the same father. She said one of the girls 'looked a lot like her', and after messaging her on Facebook the pair met face to face.'I felt like I was looking in a mirror,' Josephine said, noting they have the same hair colour and personality. DNA tests then revealed that the two women were in fact half sisters, which Josephine said was 'like I won the lottery'. However, with the sperm donor's gynecologist friend predicting he could have up to 160 children, the case has provoked inbreeding fears, with Toulouse's population of 534,000 people. Josephine revealed: 'There are huge problems with inbreeding because we are in Toulouse, a city that is not so big. 'I calculated that if we both have two children, there will be 320 of us in the next generation.'I know that among those who are listening to me today, there is bound to be one of my half-sisters.'The student is now appealing for people who think they could be her half sibling to come forward as she wants to meet them, saying 'most of my half-sisters don't know how they were conceived.' She has so far discovered 17 half sisters but believes there could be many more. Whether people born in Toulouse in the 70s, 80s or 90s and have a gut feeling their father could have been a sperm donor, or have darker skin than their families, she is urging people to come forward by contacting the PMAnonyme Association in France.*Josephine is not the woman's real name and she spoke to RTL on condition of anonymity.