A Dutch court has ordered a man, who allegedly fathered up to 600 children worldwide, to halt his sperm donations.
According to a court ruling reported by de Telegraaf newspaper, Jonathan Meijer, a 41-year-old Dutchman, has been prohibited from donating semen to clinics any further
He could be fined 100,000 euros ($110,000) per infraction.
The judges have instructed Mr. Meijer, a musician from The Hague, to write to clinics abroad and request the destruction of any of his semen that they possess, with the exception of doses reserved for parents who have previously used his semen to have children.
The decision was made following the initiation of a civil case by a foundation that advocates for the rights of children conceived through donor insemination and Dutch parents who had utilized Mr. Meijer’s services as a donor.
According to them, Mr. Meijer’s ongoing donations violate his donor children’s right to privacy. As a result, these children are fearful of accidental incest and inbreeding, which could hinder their ability to form romantic relationships.
In 2017, it was revealed that Mr. Meijer had made large donations and as a result, he was prohibited from making further donations to Dutch fertility clinics, where he had already fathered more than 100 children.
According to the Dutch news website Algemeen Dagblad, he continued donating internationally, including to Cryos, a Danish sperm bank that operates globally and also advertised his services on websites and social media.
According to the report, Mr. Meijer used different names while offering himself as a sperm donor on websites that connect potential parents with donors.
Mothers who had children with similar features of curly blond hair and piercing blue eyes started meeting each other by coincidence. Some of them even created online groups to connect with other women who had used the same samples.
In 2018, Mr. Meijer fathered a child with Eva, who is the Dutch woman at the center of the court case. Eva expressed feeling sick to her stomach upon learning that Mr. Meijer had fathered multiple children.
Earlier this year, she stated: ‘If I had known he had already fathered more than 100 children I would never have chosen him. If I think about the consequences this could have for my child I am sick to my stomach.
‘Many mothers have told him he needs to stop, but nothing helps. So going to court is the only option I have to protect my child.’
Eva and the Donorkind Foundation accused Mr. Meijer of lying to hundreds of women about the number of children he has fathered, and requested to stop him from donating and obtain information on the clinics where he has donated sperm.
Eva stated that she would like all of his sperm that is currently being stored to be destroyed, except for cases where it has been saved for a woman who has already given birth to one of his children.
The chairman of the foundation, Ties van der Meer, stated: ‘We are taking action against this man because national government is doing nothing. He has a global reach via the internet and he does business with large, international sperm banks.’
Donorkind’s lawyer Mark de Hek stated: ‘This behavior is dangerous for the mental well-being and health of donor children. By preferring his reproductive urge, the donor is acting unlawfully.
‘In addition, he violates the agreements with the clinics and with the prospective parents, because they trusted his promise that he would father a maximum of 25 children.’
Van der Meer expressed concerns about the potential implications of the case. He specifically mentioned the possibility of Mr. Meijer’s children meeting and developing feelings for each other during their teenage years, without realizing they are siblings by blood.
The Netherlands has a population of 17.5 million people. In 2020, approximately 12% of the population, which is around 2.1 million people, were between 15-24 years old.
According to his online profile, Mr. Meijer has stated that he bears a resemblance to Brad Pitt, Chris Hemsworth, and Robert Plant, the singer of Led Zeppelin.
In March, Julia spoke to the Daily Mail and shared her desire to have a family with her wife Ida. She also mentioned that in her opinion, he resembled a Viking.
However, the couple found him attractive and decided to meet him in a hotel to receive his sample. They thought he seemed genuine and friendly.
The Daily Mail reported that since Mr. Meijer did not request a fee, the recipients of his help believed his motives had been purely altruistic. They also had no reason to doubt his claim of having helped create only “14 or 15” other children.
Later, they discovered the truth about the number of children he had fathered, and it deeply shocked them.
According to Julia and her wife, they still believe that Mr. Meijer is ‘a nice guy.’
However, they suggested that he may have a psychological condition that causes an ‘addiction’ to having children.
Julia stated, ‘he wants to be in Guinness World Records. Those are the only two reasons that could explain why he wants to spread his genes’.
A Facebook page has been created by some of the people who were fathered by Donor 102, the man who was discovered to have fathered 102 babies in 2017. The name of the page may appear ominous as it references the donor’s name and the number of offspring he had.
At that time, Dutch health authorities uncovered his secret practice of providing sperm to nearly all of the fertility clinics in the country.
In the Netherlands, donors are legally allowed to father 25 children with a maximum of 12 different women. However, this particular case involves a number of children that is much higher than the permitted limit.
Mr. Meijer has continued to expand his family by registering with sperm banks like Cryos International, which is the world’s biggest provider of sperm to over 100 countries, including Britain. He has also registered with another large international fertility clinic in Ukraine, despite facing earlier legal actions.
Julia and Ida experienced emotional distress when they discovered that he made private arrangements over the unregulated internet for sperm donation.
