Judges in Holland (The Netherlands) have ordered a man suspected of fathering at least 550 children as a sperm donor to stop donating.
The 41-year-old, identified in Dutch media as “Jonathan M.”, was sued by a foundation protecting the rights of donor children and the mother of one of the children reportedly fathered from his sperm.
According to Dutch clinical guidelines, a donor should not father more than 25 children in 12 families. However, Jonathan was said to have fathered between 550 and 600 children in the course of his sperm donation since 2007 when he began.
Thus, Judge Thera Hesselink stated in on Friday that the court “prohibits the defendant from donating his semen to new prospective parents after the issuing of this judgement.”
A written verdict by Hesselink also stated that He has also been restrained from making further bids with any prospective parents “with the wish that he was willing to donate semen… advertise his services to prospective parents or join any organisation that establishes contact between prospective parents.”
He would therefore be charged with a 100,000-euro ($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”, said she was grateful that the court stopped the man from “mass donations that’s spread like wildfire to other countries”. She said in a statement that she is “asking the donor to respect our interests and to accept the verdict, because our children deserve to be left alone.”
