A Dutch man has been banned from donating any more sperm after fathering over 550 children in the Netherlands and other countries.
The mother of a child born with the donor’s sperm and a foundation on behalf of other parents petitioned a judge at The Hague District Court for an injunction, which resulted in the ban.
Friday serial donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer was officially forbidden from continuing to donate his semen to clinics.
“I hope that this ruling leads to a ban on mass donation and spreads like an oil slick to other countries. We must stand hand in hand around our children and protect them against this injustice,” she said in a statement.
According to Dutch regulations, sperm donors are only permitted to father a maximum of 25 children from 12 different mothers, and the donor reportedly lied to parents about his donor history.
In a court proceeding, the donor’s attorney stated that he wanted to assist parents who would not otherwise be able to conceive.
The donor “deliberately lied about this in order to persuade the parents to take him as a donor,” said the judge who handled the civil case.
“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, adding that this “has or could possibly have negative psychosocial consequences for the children. It is therefore in their interest that this kinship network is not extended any further.”
The court said that the case was about “conflicting fundamental rights. On the one hand, the right to respect for the privacy of the parents and the donor children … and on the other hand, the same right of the donor.”
The court ruled that “the interests of the donor children and their parents outweigh the interest of the donor in continuing to donate sperm to new prospective parents.”
He will be required to pay 100,000 euros ($110,000) for every case if he does not immediately stop all donations.
According to lawyer Mark de Hek, the ruling is “a clear signal and, as far as I am concerned, a final warning to other mass donors.”
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