The Dutchman who admitted to having fathered 550 children with his donated sperm guaranteed this Thursday that he is not a “mad bull with a reproductive urge”, during a lawsuit filed by the mother of one of the children.
The lawsuit confronts Jonathan M., a 41-year-old Dutchman, with Eva, who gave birth using the defendant’s sperm, and the Donorkind Foundation, which has admitted that no law explicitly prohibits Jonathan’s actions, although they as “unnecessarily endangering offspring.
Eva plans to prevent Jonathan from continuing to donate sperm in clinics and through social networks, the Efe agency reported.
Several mothers of children conceived with the defendant’s sperm appeared in court in The Hague, so many that some had to watch the trial in another room.
According to the indictment, Jonathan’s actions are dangerous, “given the scientifically proven risk of inbreeding, incest and negative psychosocial consequences for children born from sperm donation”.
In addition, it hinders the sexual freedom of “children” because they always have to verify that a potential mate is not their half-brother.
Jonathan, who admitted to being the father of at least 550 children on arrival in court, defended that the risk of incest is “very small” because his children can know who the father is because he is not an anonymous donor, and regretted that he become “the face of those who donate sperm on a massive scale”.
“I was presented as if I was some kind of rabid bull with a breeding impulse. I’m not. I don’t believe in evolution, I believe in creation”he underlined.
In addition, he assured that he has a good relationship with many parents and that he was present at the birth of several of his children and even at the funeral of one.
“I no longer volunteer online, but when parents-to-be approach me, I want the freedom to respond”he stressed, making sure he hasn’t made any active donations since 2019, though he remains available to families who already have at least one biological child from him.
The Dutch Association of Gynecologists (NVOG) warned about this case in 2017 when it learned that this man had fathered at least 102 children in 11 clinics in the country, putting him on a blacklist.
Jonathan continued to donate in other countries and through social media.
Eva guarantees that she is in contact with affected parents in Australia, Germany, Denmark, Spain, United Kingdom or Italy, and even in Africa, such as Kenya and Tanzania. “They are everywhere,” he underlined.
Anonymous donation was banned in 2004 and clinics are required to register the case in a database for each treatment, although no information is exchanged between clinics.
The House of Representatives has a proposal on the table to review the functioning of the national register of sperm donors, which has existed for twenty years, but does not work to prevent cases like Jonathan’s and only provides data about a father to the children who care about it questions and under very strict conditions.
In addition to Jonathan’s case, at least ten gynecologists have been identified as having used their own sperm without the knowledge of women trying to conceive in their fertility clinics in the Netherlands.
One of them is Jan Karbaat, with 81 confirmed children, or the gynecologist Jan Wildschut, father of at least 47 children.
The most recent case occurred in November. A Dutchman, who recently died of esophageal cancer, donated his sperm to various women with whom he had contact via the internet and will have fathered at least 80 children in the Netherlands.
In 2021, because of these scandals, a record 1,415 people born by sperm donation sought genetic information about their biological father.
Source: DN
