Dutchman who fathered more than 500 kids around the world banned from donating sperm over incest risk
A Dutch court on Friday ordered a man who’s fathered at least 550 children around the world to stop donating his sperm.
The man, identified as Jonathan Meijer, is no longer allowed to donate his semen to fertility clinics anywhere in the world, the ruling said. He was also ordered to contact any clinics abroad that have his semen and ask them to destroy it — unless the samples are reserved for parents who already have children by him.
The case against the 41-year-old Dutchman was brought by the Donorkind Foundation, an organization that advocates for the rights of donor children, and a woman who allegedly conceived one of Meijer’s biological kids.
Meijer had promised the woman, identified as Eva, he would father no more than 25 children — which is the maximum number of children sperm donors in the Netherlands are allowed to conceive “to prevent inbreeding, incest and psychosocial problems in donor children,” the foundation said in a news release.
However, it later emerged he had already “fathered hundreds of children through 13 clinics in different countries,” as well as by connecting to prospective parents in online forums.
The man’s lawyer, Richard van der Zwan, told the court that he simply wanted to help parents who would be otherwise unable to conceive. But a judge at The Hague District Court said the man “deliberately lied about this in order to persuade the parents to take him as a donor.”
If he tries to donate again, he could be fined 100,000 euros ($111,000) per infraction.
The woman who filed the lawsuit celebrated the decision, saying she hopes the ruling “leads to a ban on mass donation and spreads like an oil slick to other countries. We must stand hand-in-hand around our children and protect them against this injustice.”
His lawyers said the ban amounts to “legal castration,” the Amsterdam-based newspaper De Telegraf reported.
Meanwhile, over on YouTube, Meijer posts videos in which he discusses his DNA, shares financial and life advice, and eats foods such as raw kidneys.