A court in the Netherlands has banned a man suspected of fathering more than 550 children through sperm donations from making any further deposits.
The ruling was passed on Friday after it was revealed that the donor had lied to both prospective mothers and fertility clinics, fathering between 550 and 600 children over the past 16 years.
The man was identified in Dutch media only as 41-year-old, Jonathan M, however a spokesman for the health ministry confirmed his identity for the New York Times as Jonathan Jacob Meijer.
Dutch guidelines state that sperm donors are allowed to father a maximum of 25 children with 12 mothers.
According to The Hague District Court, he’d lied about the number of children he had fathered, the number of sperm deposits he had made and his intention to donate more in the future.
Meijer’s refusal to follow the rules could affect the mental health of the children he fathered. Credit: YouTube/@JonathanJacobMeijer
A mother of one child conceived with the donor’s sperm and a foundation representing other parents sought an injunction.
“I hope this ruling leads to a ban on mass donation and spreads like an oil slick to other countries,” said the mother who was identified simply as ‘Eva’ due to anonymity laws.
“We must stand hand in hand around our children and protect them against this injustice.”
The alarm was first raised about Meijer in 2017, by which point he’d been barred from donating after fathering around 100 children in 10 clinics in his home country though fertility clinics, facilities, adverts and online forums and had resorted to making sperm donations abroad instead.
While his lawyer claims his client wanted to help people to conceive, the judge hearing the civil case disagreed saying that he’d ‘deliberately lied’.
The court’s statement continued: “All these parents are now confronted with the fact that the children in their family are part of a huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings, which they did not choose.”
He is thought to have donated sperm leading to the birth of between 500-600 children. Credit: YouTube/@JonathanJacobMeijer
Claiming this could have ‘negative psychosocial consequences’, the court said ‘it is therefore in their interest that this kinship network is not extended any further’.
The court also stated that the case concerned ‘conflicting fundamental rights’, explaining: “On the one hand, the right to respect for the privacy of the parents and the donor children … and on the other hand, the same right of the donor.”
The eventual ruling was that ‘the interests of the donor children and their parents outweigh the interest of the donor in continuing to donate sperm to new prospective parents’.
Meijer faces a €100,000 (£88,000) fine per case if he breaches his ban.
Lawyer Mark de Hek called the ruling a ‘clear signal’ and ‘final warning to other mass donors’.
Credit: YouTube/@JonathanJacobMeijer
