A Dutch Sperm Donor Has Been Banned From Donating Again After Fathering Over 500 Children

Sperm donations are a very effective and helpful way to assist couples who are unable to conceive a child. But this Dutch man, Jonathon, alone has fathered 500 children through sperm donations. He has now been ordered by a judge to stop or he’ll be facing a hefty fine of more than €100,000 ($111,275).

Jonathon is aged 41 and had been banned once in 2017 from fertility clinics in the Netherlands when he fathered over 100 children after which he started donating abroad and online.

Currently, he has been ordered by a court in Hague to list all the clinics he has donated to in order to destroy his sperm. The reason is that with these many children coming from the same individual, there is a high chance that siblings might unknowingly form a couple and have children together leading to abnormalities and other biological issues.

A foundation protecting donor children’s rights, and the mother of one of the children allegedly fathered from his sperm took him to court.

“The point is that this kinship network with hundreds of half-brothers and half-sisters is much too large,” a spokesman for the court, Gert-Mark Smelt, said.

Judge Thera Hesselink further added that the court “prohibits the defendant from donating his semen to new prospective parents after the issuing of this judgment.”

He has also been banned from contacting any prospective parents, “with the wish that he was willing to donate semen… advertise his services to prospective parents or join any organization that establishes contact between prospective parents”, the judge said.

The court in Hague said that Jonathon had “deliberately misinformed” the parents about the number of children he had fathered which has created confusion now.

“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,” it said according to the BBC.