A Dutch sperm donor who allegedly fathered at least 550 children worldwide is facing legal action.
The Donorkind Foundation, which advocates for the rights of donor children, and a Dutch woman named Eva, who had a child in 2018 using donated sperm, are behind the lawsuit, which was launched to prevent the 41-year-old Hague from fathering more children.
According to the foundation, the person named Jonathan M. in the Dutch press has donated his sperm to at least 13 clinics in the Netherlands and overseas.
The law allows one person to donate sperm for up to 25 children or 12 families to prevent incest and protect the mental health of donor children.
“I would never have chosen this donor if I had known that you had already fathered more than a hundred children,” mother Eva, who filed a lawsuit against the donor, said in a statement.
Eva explained the rationale for her decision to sue, saying, “When I think about the consequences this may have for my child, I get a feeling and insecure about his future: how many more children will be added? The only way to protect my child is to go to court.”
Ties van der Meer, President of the Donorkind Foundation, said: “We are taking action against this man because the national government is doing nothing. He has a global reach over the Internet and does business with large, international sperm banks.”
The allegation that he continues to donate sperm illegally
Jonathan M. was blacklisted in the Netherlands in 2017 after it was revealed that he had more than a hundred donor children.
The Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (NVOG) urged all sperm banks and clinics at that time to immediately stop using this person’s sperm.
However, Jonathan M. allegedly continues to donate abroad and through illegal channels.
The Donorkind foundation claimed that the donor secretly sold his sperm by reaching out to expectant mothers via social media.
It is stated that this person also lied about the number of children he fathered through sperm banks.
According to the foundation’s attorney, Mark de Hek, the donor violated agreements it had with clinics and prospective parents who only counted on the commitment to conceive up to 25 children.
“The donor has prioritized the reproductive urge, and this behavior poses a threat to the mental and physical well-being of donor children,” said De Hek.
Dutch media reported that Jonathan M. is currently living in Kenya and has refused to comment on the legal proceedings against him.
Number of children limited to 25
The Progress Educational Trust (PET), a platform for people affected by infertility or genetic conditions, states that limiting the number of children to 25 is designed to keep inbreeding levels among donor conceptions similar to the general population.
“When a donor’s genetic material is present in a large number of offspring, having a close relationship between two half-siblings increases the risk, albeit small,” PET said.
Details of the legal proceedings have yet to be released, but the Eva and Donorkind Foundation now wants to stop Jonathan M. from donating and find out exactly which clinics he donated sperm to. Plaintiffs also demand that all of his sperm still in storage be destroyed unless reserved for a woman who already has one of her children.
By law, mothers who have at least one child are allowed to donate so that their children can have as many genetically related siblings as possible.