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A man who has fathered between 550 and 600 children in the past 16 years is no longer allowed to donate sperm to prospective parents, a court in the Netherlands ruled on Friday.
According to the District Court of The Hague, the man lied about the number of children he had fathered, the number of sperm donations he had made and his intention to donate more sperm.
“All these parents are now faced with the fact that the children in their families are part of a large kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings, that they did not choose,” the court said.
Because of Dutch privacy laws, the government has not publicly named the man, Jonathan Jacob Meijer, 41, in the court process as the donor in question. However, in an email to The New York Times for a 2021 article about him, a spokesperson for the health ministry confirmed his identity. “The donor must sign an agreement with the clinic if he does not donate sperm in another clinic,” wrote Gerrit-Jan KleinJan. “The sperm donor you wrote about also made this deal. However, he donated more to the sperm bank that produced 102 babies.
The court ruling came after Mr. Meijer was sued by the Dutch Donor Child Foundation, which represents the interests of the children of sperm donors, and the mother of one child. “The children need to rest,” their mother, who went by Eva but did not release her last name, said in a statement on Friday.
Citing the negative psychological consequences for the children, the court said Mr. Meijer’s ban did not continue to contribute to the children’s interests. It will be hard for them to cultivate a relationship with so many biological half brothers, and it adds to more chances of incest, said the court.
In the Netherlands, Mr. Meijer donated sperm to at least 11 fertility clinics, according to court documents. Each of these clinics allows sperm to produce 25 children or be donated by a maximum of 12 mothers, as is the rule in the Netherlands. Mr. Meijer also lied to the clinics, according to court records, telling each clinic that he did not donate elsewhere and did not plan to do so in the future.
A report from 2017 concluded that Mr. Meijer had given birth to 102 children through Dutch clinics between 2007 and 2017. Between 2015 and 2018, he also donated sperm to a fertility clinic in Denmark which, at that time, did not have restrictions. the number of children produced from donated sperm and those who send semen to people in other countries.
In addition to clinic donations, Mr. Meijer also offers sperm on various social media platforms in the Netherlands and abroad. According to the court, Mr. Meijer remained in contact with several parents.
Dutch Donor Child Foundation – who posted a picture of two clinking champagne glasses on Twitter was a celebration of the verdict with the words “an important step forward!” – support the verdict. “We are happy that the judge ruled that it is not good to have countless half-siblings,” Ester de Lau, a council member, said.
Dutch lawmakers are working on new rules for sperm donors to protect the interests of children. The Dutch House of Representatives discussed this issue this month.
“In the Netherlands, we think it’s important that everyone has the facts about their lineage,” said Ernst Kuipers, minister of health, welfare and sports. Donor children have been able to request this information since 2004. But the government wants to create a central registry that will show that sperm donors have donated to multiple clinics.
“The new rules will discourage undesirable situations in which sperm donors sometimes father hundreds of children,” according to the proposed bill.
Mrs. de Lau said he supports the bill, but needs to go further to ensure that donor children can also seek private donations and donations abroad. “Registration can start in the Netherlands, but it has to be international,” he said. “This is not something that is limited to the Netherlands.”
Rules on sperm donation vary across Europe. In Belgium, the health minister announced a similar registry after it became clear that Mr. Meijer was also active there.
Richard van der Zwan, Mr. Meijer’s lawyer, told the court that the client wanted to help his parents who had trouble getting pregnant, The Associated Press reported. Mr van der Zwan could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Mr Meijer said he had not acted selfishly and that his continued sperm donation would not affect future children, the court heard. But the court ruled that the interests of the children and other parents outweighed Mr. Meijer’s interest in continuing to offer himself as a donor.
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