A Netherlands man who fathered at least 550 children through sperm donations has been banned by a Dutch court from giving his semen to any more clinics.
CBS News reports the Hague District Court has ordered the donor, 41-year-old Jonathan Meijer, to stop making donations to sperm banks. Should Meijer breach the ban, he could be forced to pay a $110,000 fine for each infraction.
In its ruling, the judge determined 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.”
“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, claiming that Meijer’s actions have “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.”
Under Dutch guidelines, sperm donors may only produce a maximum of 25 children with 12 mothers. Meanwhile, Meijer is believed to have fathered between 500 and 600 children all over the world, with the majority of cases having taken place in the Netherlands.
Back in March, the Dutch DonorKind Foundation filed a lawsuit against the sperm donor after determining that Meijer contributed to at least 13 clinics, including 11 in the Netherlands. Meijer alleged he merely “wanted to help parents who would otherwise be unable to conceive.”
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