A man identified as Jonathan M. has been ordered by a court in the Netherlands to stop donating his sperm after a lawsuit accused him of fathering over 550 children since 2007. The scandal was brought to light by a foundation and the mother of one of the children, who suspected incestuous links between the hundreds of children allegedly fathered by Jonathan. The court also noted the ‘huge kinship network’ with ‘hundreds of half-siblings’ across many countries, helmed by Jonathan.
The guidelines in the Netherlands dictate that a donor should not father more than 25 children in 12 families. However, the judges found that Jonathan had helped produce between 550 and 600 children since he began donating sperm in 2007.
Judge Thera Hesselink announced on Friday that the court has ‘prohibited the defendant from donating his semen to new prospective parents’. Additionally, Jonathan M has been ordered not to contact any prospective parents or advertise his services to them or join any organization that establishes contact between prospective parents. If he continues to donate his semen, he will face a fine of €100,000 (over ?90 Crores) for each future donation.
The mother of one of the children expressed gratitude towards the court for stopping Jonathan from ‘mass donations that have spread like wildfire to other countries’. She urged him to respect the court’s verdict and not to contact any of the prospective parents.
Over 100 children fathered by Jonathan were born in the Netherlands, according to The Guardian. The clinic where he donated sperm also sent his semen to private addresses in several other countries. The district court in The Hague stated that Jonathan had ‘deliberately misinformed prospective parents about the number of children he had already fathered in the past’.
This case is the latest in a series of fertility scandals in the Netherlands. In 2020, a gynecologist was accused of fathering at least 17 children with women who believed they were receiving sperm from anonymous donors.
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