A court in the Netherlands has banned a man from continuing to donate his sperm. The man fathered at least 550 children who are unaware of their half-siblings. This increases the risk of incest.
For the court in The Hague, 550 children are apparently more than enough. The 41-year-old man is therefore no longer allowed to donate sperm, according to the presiding judge. She was right in a joint lawsuit brought by the “Donor Child” foundation and a mother who had had a child from the defendant by means of artificial insemination.
According to the law in the Netherlands, a maximum of 25 children in twelve different families can be born from one man’s sperm. According to court spokesman Gert-Mark Smelt, this donor deceived countless parents. In fact, at least 550 to 600 children were born with his sperm. “So that’s a massive kinship network where everyone has hundreds of half brothers and half sisters.”
Negative psychosocial consequences
The children were mostly born in the Netherlands, but also abroad. Because fertility clinics are not allowed to pass on confidential data, nobody knew for a long time that the accused is the genetic father of so many girls and boys.
The resulting family relationships could have negative psychosocial consequences for the children, says court spokesman Smelt. “The consequences for identity and the question of how one behaves towards the half-siblings, but also the increased risk of incest, all of this weighs heavily – heavier than the interests of the man in wanting to donate sperm.”
100,000 fine – per case
If the convicted person does not comply with the judge’s verdict, he must pay a fine of 100,000 euros for each additional sperm donation. An exception only applies to parents who have already had a child with his help and who still want to have another child.
The court ruled that the accused must have frozen sperm stored in laboratories destroyed immediately. In addition, according to Smelt, the man is not allowed to advertise himself as a sperm donor on the Internet or in other media. A breach of this will be punished with a fine of 10,000 euros. “The coercive sums were imposed so that the man would comply with this verdict. So that he would no longer donate sperm, that he would no longer advertise himself and that he would write to the sperm banks that they would destroy his sperm stocks.”
Demand for central donor register
The sperm donor had once promised the complaining mother not to father more than 25 children under any circumstances. In 2019, the woman then read in a newspaper article that the man was a hundredfold father. He lied to please childless parents, the defendant said through his lawyer. He did not comment on the verdict.
The “Spenderkind” foundation, on the other hand, welcomes the verdict. At the same time, she calls on the Ministry of Health to advocate for a transparent and central donor register.