A Dutch court barred a sperm donor from giving any more of his sperm after he was accused of fathering more than 550 children. If Jonathan Jacob Meijer, 41, tries to give again, he might face a fine of more than 100,000 Euros (Rs 90,41,657), according to BBC.
The tragic story came to light after a charity and the mother of one of the children sued him in the Hague. According to the court that presided over the civil case, the donor “misled prospective parents about the number of children he had already fathered in the past.”
“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. The court prohibits the defendant from donating his semen to new prospective parents after the issuing of this judgment,” Judge Hesselink said in a ruling on Friday.
A sperm donor who fathered over 550 children was ordered to stop by the Dutch Court.
He has also been ordered not to contact any prospective parents “with the wish that he was willing to donate semen… advertise his services to prospective parents or join any organization that establishes contact between prospective parents,” Mr. Hesselink added.
Mr. Meijer, in particular, provided his sperm to at least 13 clinics, 11 of which were in the Netherlands. Dutch clinical recommendations state that sperm donors should not contribute to more than 12 women or fathers more than 25 children. This is to avoid situations of unintentional breeding and psychological difficulties in youngsters who may become distressed after discovering they had hundreds of siblings.
However, since donating sperm in 2007, he has assisted in the birth of between 550 and 600 children. He was barred from giving to fertility clinics in the Netherlands in 2017. Instead of quitting, he continued to donate sperm both abroad and online.
”Mass donations that [have] spread like wildfire to other countries,” according to the mother of one of the children involved in the legal dispute, were stopped by the court, and she expressed her gratitude for that.
She stated in a formal statement, “I’m asking the donor to respect our interests and to accept the verdict because our children deserve to be left alone.”
In contrast, the donor’s attorney stated in court that his client wished to assist couples who would not otherwise be able to conceive. Mr. Meijer, a musician by trade, currently resides in Kenya.
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