The man, who started as a sperm donor in 2007, had helped produce between 550 and 600 children, according to judges. Dutch clinical guidelines recommend that a donor should not father more than 25 children in 12 families.
The court ruled that Jonathan M. was prohibited from donating his semen to new prospective parents after the issuing of the judgement. He was also not allowed to contact any prospective parents, advertise his services or join any organisation that establishes contact between prospective parents. Should he continue donating his semen, he would face a €100,000 ($110,000) fine for every transgression, as well as additional fines.
The mother of one of the children in the court case, identified only as “Eva”, expressed gratitude that the court had stopped the man from “mass donations that are spread like wildfire to other countries”. She also urged the donor to respect their interests and to accept the verdict. More than 100 of Jonathan M.’s children were born in Dutch clinics, and others were born privately. He also donated semen to a Danish clinic, which then dispatched it to private addresses in various countries.
“The donor deliberately misinformed prospective parents about the number of children he had already fathered in the past,” said the Hague District Court in a separate statement. “All these parents are now confronted with the fact that the children in their family are part of a huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings, which they did not choose.”
The court said it was “sufficiently plausible” that the kinship network had or could have negative psychosocial consequences for the children, including psychological problems around identity and fears of incest. “The interests of the children weigh too heavily and that is why it is forbidden for the gentleman to give further semen,” said court spokesman Gert-Mark Smelt.
“This is the first time that a judge has ruled on such a case, and it is encouraging to see this behaviour immediately dealt with,” said Mark de Hek, one of the lawyers in the case.
The case is the latest in a series of fertility scandals to hit the Netherlands. In 2020, a deceased gynaecologist was accused of fathering at least 17 children to women who thought they were receiving sperm from anonymous donors. The year before, it emerged that a Rotterdam doctor fathered at least 49 children while inseminating women seeking treatment.