A sperm donor in the Netherlands, linked to more than 550 babies born from sperm donation in at least 13 Dutch and foreign clinics, swill be brought before the courts by one of the inseminated mothers and by the Donorkind Foundation, which defends the interests of people born with this method.
The foundation itself has announced that it will launch legal proceedings to try to stop the behavior of Jonathan Meijer 41 years oldaccused of deceiving women around the world, of lying and downplaying the number of times he had donated his sperm, since Donorkind counts that helped father more than 500 children.
The donor delivered his sperm to at least 13 clinics in the Netherlands and abroad, and “also approaches prospective parents looking for a donor for her home insemination through matchmaking platforms and social media, and lies about the number of children she’s had,” the foundation notes.
Clinical guidelines require a sperm donor to do this a maximum of 25 times successfully or help 12 families in total, to avoid consanguinity, incest and psychological problems of people born with this method.
“Now that this man has indicated to mothers that he does not want to stop his behavior and has recently approached new fathers, he is being asked to be banned sanctioned by new donations, required not to contact new fathers to be, and to write to the clinics to request the destruction of your stored sperm”, warns Donorkind.
Eva, the mother who is now initiating the court complaint against this individual, assures that she had promised not to father more than 25 children when she chose him as her donor in 2018.
“If I’d known he’d already had over a hundred children, I never would have chosen him. When I think about the consequences this could have for my son, I am left with a bad body and uncertainty about his future: How many other children will there be? In the interviews with the donor, many mothers have asked him to stop, but nothing helps,” says Eva.
His lawyer, Mark de Hek, warns that the donor is acting illegally by putting his reproductive impulse first and reminds that this behavior is dangerous for the mental well-being and health of the children born from the donation.
The Dutch association of gynecologists NVOG first warned about this man, a musician, in 2017 when it emerged that he had fathered at least 102 babies in the Netherlands through 10 different clinics.
The donor was blacklisted from Dutch clinics, but continued to donate in other countries, such as Denmark and Ukraine.
It’s unclear when the case will be heard in Dutch courts, but Donorkind hopes to have more details in the coming weeks.
In addition to this case, the foundation has already identified at least ten Dutch gynecologists who used their own sperm without the knowledge of women who wanted to get pregnant at fertility clinics in the Netherlands.
At the same time, a record 1,415 people born from sperm donation sought genetic information about their biological father in 2021 after these scandals became public.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.