The 41-year-old Dutchman Jonathan Meijer is forbidden to donate more to clinics. Court also ordered him to write to clinics asking them to destroy any samples
A man who fathered up to 600 children around the world has been ordered to stop donating sperm by a Dutch court. The 41-year-old Dutchman, identified by de Telegraaf newspaper as Jonathan Meijer, was forbidden to donate more semen to clinics, the court ruling said. He could be fined 100,000 euros (£88,000) per infraction.
Judges also ordered Meijer, a musician from The Hague, to write to clinics abroad asking them to destroy any of his semen they have in stock, except doses reserved for parents who already had children by him.
The decision came after a civil case was started by a foundation representing the interests of donor children and Dutch parents who had used Meijer as a donor.
They argued that Meijer’s continued donations violated the right to a private life of his donor children, whose ability to form romantic relationships are hampered by fears of accidental incest and inbreeding.
Meijer’s mass donations first came to light in 2017 and he was banned from donating to Dutch fertility clinics, where he had already fathered over 100 children.
However, he continued to donate abroad, including to the Danish sperm bank Cryos which operates internationally, and offered his services through websites and social media, according to the Dutch news website Algemeen Dagblad daily.
Meijer also continued to offer himself as a donor on sites matching prospective parents with sperm donors, sometimes using a different name, it said.
Mothers – with look-a-like children sporting curly blond hair and piercing blue eyes – had even begun to meet by chance. Some started online groups to find other women who had also used the same samples.
Eva, the Dutch woman at the centre of the court case, had a child by Mr Meijer in 2018 and said it made her feel ‘sick to her stomach’ that he had fathered so many other children.
Earlier this year, she said: ‘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 wanted to stop Mr Meijer donating and to find out exactly which clinics he has donated sperm to. They accused Mr Meijer of ‘lying’ to hundreds of women about the number of children he has fathered.
Eva said she also wanted all his sperm still in storage to be destroyed, unless it has been reserved for a woman who already has one of his children.
Ties van der Meer, the foundation’s chairman, said: ‘We are taking action against this man because national government is doing nothing. He has a global reach via internet and he does business with large, international sperm banks.’
Donorkind’s lawyer Mark de Hek said: ‘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.’
The case could have concerning implications. Van der Meer has spoken of concerns that in their teens, Meijer’s children could meet one-another and even fall for eachother – unaware that they are biologically brother and sister.
With 17.5 million people, the Netherlands is a small country. In 2020, just under 12 percent (around 2.1 million) fell in to the 15-24 age range.
In his online profile, Meijer is understood to have claimed he resembled Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Chris Hemsworth, and Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant. Julia – who wanted to start a family with her wife Ida – said, in truth, she thought he looked more like a viking.
Nevertheless, the couple – deciding he was ‘cute’ – met him in a hotel to take the delivery of his sample, saying he seemed warm and sincere.
As Meijer didn’t ask for a fee, they told the Daily Mail they had no reason to doubt him when he said his motive for helping them was purely altruistic. They believed him, too, when he said he had helped to create just ’14 or 15′ other children.
However, they later found out the truth about how many children he has fathered, saying that it shocked them to the core. Julia and her wife said they remain convinced Meijer is, at heart, ‘a nice guy’.
However, they suggested that he may have a psychological aberration which makes him ‘addicted’ to having children. Either that or, Julia said, ‘he wants to be in Guinness World Records. Those are the only two reasons that could explain why he wants to spread his genes.’
Some of his ‘victims’ have set up a Facebook page with the sinister-sounding name Donor 102 – the number of babies he was found to have fathered in 2017.
It was then that Dutch health authorities first discovered he was secretly supplying sperm to almost every fertility clinic in the country.
This far exceeds the legal limit in the Netherlands, which permits donors to father 25 children by up to 12 different women.
Since then, however, Meijer defiantly continued to expand his vast ‘family’ by registering with sperm banks such as Denmark-based Cryos International, the world’s biggest provider, which supplies to more than 100 countries, Britain among them, and another big international fertility clinic in Ukraine.
He was also found to make private arrangements over the internet, where sperm donation is completely unregulated, as Julia and Ida found to their emotional cost.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
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