“Our Father”, on Netflix: the case of the doctor who masturbated to give birth to his patients and had nearly 100 children

In the successful documentary Our fatherNetflix announced the aberrant story of Dr. Donald Clinethe fertility expert in the seventies and eighties he deceived dozens of women by impregnating them with his own sperm.

Most likely, the protagonist of the scariest documentary on the platform has the famous “Kubrick look”. “Kubrick look” is a gesture made at one point by the main characters of Stanley Kubrick’s films to show the state of madness their characters are going through. Cline, unlike the monsters of The sparkle Y orange clockis a real man who lives and sometimes takes his grandchildren to swimming lessons.

In the 1970s and 1980s, this well-known Indianapolis physician inseminated at least 36 infertile women using his own sperm without consent. His victims, whom he misled by telling them that the sperm came from the residents of his clinic or from unknown donors, is over 60.

Over time, Cline’s “family” has grown and, in some cases, there is a risk that her biological children will have romantic relationships with each other because many live in the same city and, obviously, are not knowing that they were brothers.

Her modus operandi involves barren women seeking unknown donors and couples going to her clinic to request to use their husband’s sperm. Cline lied to everyone. Our father describes how, for example, some women find it difficult to reveal to their husbands that they are not the real father of their children.

The engine of the 97 -minute documentary is the research he does Jacob Ballardone of the “sisters” (so they called Cline’s biological sons and daughters), so the doctor confessed what he had done and admitted it was wrong.

In the middle of the last decade, Ballard, with suspicions about who his biological father was, contacted some of his half-siblings to get DNA tests and confirm what he thought. It all led to Cline, so he filed a complaint with the Indiana State Attorney General and tried to contact the doctor.

No one answered the two of them.. Ignored by the prosecution, and many others by Cline, Jacoba turned to the media and was finally able to be heard.

The woman met Cline’s children and they finally confessed that their father, behind closed doors, revealed to them that he had implanted dozens of women with semen he had produced by masturbating. in his own clinic, a few meters from his patients.

The horrific story reached people’s ears and the doctor was forced to comment on what happened decades ago and even get to know some of his unidentified children. Of these, the documentary suggested, he read passages from the Bible.

At first, Cline ignored Ballard and refused to take DNA tests, but eventually he admitted he did..

However, the case does not end with casting convincing explanations about the criminal’s causes. Cline indicates that he used his sperm and has not told anyone because I feel sorry for infertile women. He did not want anyone to be left with no possibility of having a family.

The expert retired in 2009 and pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice. He admitted he lied to state investigators and surrendered his license to practice. Given her a one-year prison sentence, her application was suspended because in Indiana, like most of the United States at the time, there were no laws explicitly prohibiting this behavior in fertility matters.

Just in May of that year, Indiana passed a law making it a crime to use the wrong sperm and allowing victims to sue doctors who do it.

Patients in these cases are not restricted by statute of limitations: they have up to five years after the fraud is discovered to file legal action, rather than five years after the crime occurs.