Father of 550 children banned by Dutch court from donating sperm

A Dutch court has imposed precautionary measures that oblige 41-year-old Jonathan Meyer to stop his activities as a sperm donor after a mother complained that he would not father more than 25 children, a limit set by law. the current regulation.

According to the newspaper a country, a Dutch sperm donor who is credited with about 550 children in the Netherlands and abroad, including in Spain, must cease its activities immediately. If you persist, you risk a €100,000 fine for each new donation.

The decision was upheld by the court of first instance in The Hague, which this Friday issued a preliminary injunction following a complaint from one of the mothers who gave birth to children with the help of Jonathan. The man deceived her, saying that he was not going to have more than 25 children.

According to the same source, the decision also prohibits the defendant from advertising on Internet and collaborate with prospective parents looking for a child. If you do, you will be punished. In addition, you must tell the court if you have donated through other centers abroad.

This is the first time the courts are considering a case of this kind.

The judges also ordered the destruction of semen samples currently stored in fertility clinics, except for those intended for families who already have a child and want to give birth to a brother or sister.

The situation has been known since 2017, the Dutch Association of Gynecologists and Obstetricians warned that Jonathan already had 102 children, mediated by 11 clinics at that time. The defendant claimed to have been inactive since 2019.

“Jonathan Meyer deliberately misled potential parents about the number of children he had and convinced them to accept him as a donor,” the ruling reads. “All of these parents are now part of a vast network of kinship that they did not choose, with negative psychosocial consequences,” they conclude.