A man who is suspected to have fathered more than 550 children through sperm donations has been ordered to stop donating.
The man was ordered to stop donating sperm by
Dutch judges in the latest fertility scandal to shock the Netherlands, the
Agence France Presse, AFP, reports.
The man, identified in Dutch media only as
“Jonathan M.”, 41, was dragged to court by a foundation protecting the rights
of donor children and the mother of one of the children allegedly fathered from
his sperm.
Dutch clinical guidelines say a donor should
not father more than 25 children in 12 families, but judges said the man had
helped produce between 550 and 600 children since he started as a sperm donor
in 2007.
The court, therefore, “prohibits the
defendant from donating his semen to new prospective parents after the issuing
of this judgment”, judge Thera Hesselink said on Friday.
Jonathan M. may also not contact 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,” Hesselink said in a written
judgment.
Should he continue with his donations, he
would face a 100,000-euro ($110,000) fine for every transgression, as well as
additional fines, the judge ordered.
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”.
“I’m asking the donor to respect our
interests and to accept the verdict because our children deserve to be left
alone,” she said in a statement.
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