Man with 600 Children from Sperm Donation... Court Says "Stop It"

Controversy Over Producing Biological Children Since 2017
Court: "Fine of 150 Million Won for Another Donation"

A Dutch man who has fathered at least 550 children through sperm donation has been ordered by the court to cease his activities.

According to a report by the British BBC on the 28th (local time), the 41-year-old man known as ‘Jonathan M’ will face a fine of over 100,000 euros (approximately 150 million won) if he donates sperm from this day forward. The American version of ‘The Sun’ revealed his full name as Jonathan Jacob Meijer and published his photo.

Jonathan began donating sperm in 2007. That year alone, he fathered about 100 biological children, sparking controversy.

At the time, when he was prohibited from donating sperm at Dutch artificial insemination clinics, he turned to overseas and online donations. According to the Dutch court, the number of children born from his sperm to date is between 550 and 600. Of these, about 100 were born through Dutch clinics, while the remaining hundreds were born through clinics in Denmark and other countries, resulting in children of various nationalities.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Donorkind Foundation, which protects the rights of children born from sperm donation, along with mothers who received Jonathan’s sperm and gave birth, filed a lawsuit against him.

The Hague City Court ruled on the day to stop Jonathan from further sperm donations and banned any contact, promotion, or group membership related to sperm donation. Additionally, the court ordered him to “provide a list of all clinics where he donated sperm to enable the destruction of stored sperm” and to cooperate accordingly.

The court found that Jonathan deliberately provided false information to prospective parents about his sperm donation history. “These parents discovered that their children are part of a vast kinship network consisting of millions of half-siblings, which was not their decision,” the court pointed out.

Sperm donation is limited in frequency to reduce the possibility of half-siblings unknowingly having children together. In the Netherlands, the limit is twelve families and twenty-five children per donor.

In 2019, a controversy arose in the Netherlands when a doctor used his own sperm for artificial insemination without the consent of the parties involved, resulting in the birth of 49 biological children.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.