A person who has fathered between 550 and 600 kids over the previous 16 years will not be allowed to donate any extra sperm to potential mother and father, a court docket within the Netherlands dominated on Friday.
According to The Hague District Court, the person lied in regards to the variety of kids he had already fathered, the variety of sperm donations he had made and his intention to donate much more sperm.
“All these mother and father are actually confronted with the truth that the kids of their household are a part of an enormous kinship community, with lots of of half siblings, which they didn’t select,” the court docket stated.
Because of Dutch privateness legal guidelines, the federal government has not publicly named the person, Jonathan Jacob Meijer, 41, within the court docket proceedings because the donor in query. However, in an electronic mail to The New York Times for a 2021 article about him, a spokesperson for the well being ministry confirmed his id. “Donors should signal an settlement with their clinic that they do not donate sperm at different clinics,” Gerrit-Jan KleinJan wrote. “The sperm donor you might be writing about made this settlement as effectively. Nevertheless, he donated at extra sperm banks leading to 102 infants.”
The court docket’s ruling got here after Mr. Meijer was sued by the Dutch Donor Child Foundation, which represents the pursuits of sperm donors’ kids, and a mom who had one in all her kids. “The kids deserve a relaxation,” the mom, who glided by Eva however omitted her final identify, stated in an announcement on Friday.
Citing unfavourable psychological penalties for the kids, the court docket stated that barring Mr. Meijer from persevering with to donate was within the kids’s greatest curiosity. It can be laborious for them to domesticate relationships with so many organic half siblings, and it provides to a better likelihood of incest, the court docket stated.
In the Netherlands, Mr. Meijer donated sperm to a minimum of 11 fertility clinics, in accordance with court docket paperwork. Each of these clinics permits his sperm to supply 25 kids or be donated to a most of 12 moms, as is the rule within the Netherlands. Mr. Meijer additionally lied to the clinics, in accordance with court docket information, telling every clinic that he hadn’t donated elsewhere and wasn’t planning on doing so sooner or later.
A report from 2017 concluded that Mr. Meijer had fathered 102 kids by means of Dutch clinics between 2007 and 2017. Between 2015 and 2018, he additionally donated sperm to a fertility clinic in Denmark that, on the time, didn’t place a restrict on the variety of kids produced from donated sperm and that despatched semen to individuals in different international locations.
In addition to his scientific donations, Mr. Meijer additionally supplied his sperm on varied social media platforms within the Netherlands and overseas. According to the court docket, Mr. Meijer retains in contact with a number of mother and father.
The Dutch Donor Child Foundation — which posted a picture of two clinking champagne glasses on Twitter in celebration of the decision with the phrases “necessary step ahead!” — supported the ruling. “We’re completely satisfied that the choose dominated that it is not a good suggestion to have numerous half-siblings,” Ester de Lau, a board member, stated.
Dutch lawmakers are within the technique of implementing new guidelines for sperm donors to guard the pursuits of the kids. The Dutch House of Representatives debated the problem this month.
“In the Netherlands, we expect it is necessary that everybody has information about their lineage,” in accordance with Ernst Kuipers, the minister of well being, welfare and sport. It has been doable for donor kids to request such info since 2004. But the federal government needs to determine a central registry that may present whether or not a sperm donor has donated to a number of clinics.
“The new guidelines would discourage undesirable conditions during which sperm donors typically father lots of of youngsters,” in accordance with the proposed invoice.
Ms. de Lau stated she supported the invoice, however that it wanted to go additional to make sure that donor kids may additionally lookup any doable non-public donations and donations overseas. “The registry can begin within the Netherlands, however must be worldwide,” she stated. “This is not one thing that’s restricted to the Netherlands.”
Rules surrounding sperm donation differ throughout Europe. In Belgium, the well being minister introduced the same registry after it grew to become clear that Mr. Meijer had additionally been lively there.
Richard van der Zwan, Mr. Meijer’s lawyer, instructed the court docket that his consumer needed to assist mother and father who had bother conceiving, The Associated Press reported. Mr. van der Zwan couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon Friday.
Mr. Meijer stated he was not appearing selfishly and that his continued sperm donations wouldn’t negatively have an effect on any subsequent kids, the court docket stated. But the court docket dominated that the pursuits of the kids and different mother and father outweighed these of Mr. Meijer’s to proceed to supply itself as a donor.