Man who's fathered 550 children has been banned from having any more
Topics: News, World News, Health
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Facebook / YouTube / Jonathan Jacob Meijer
Topics: News, World News, Health
A man ended up in court after fathering over 500 children, leading to fears of incest.
Dutch musician Jonathan Jacob Meijer, 42, reportedly refused to stop despite concerns for the safety and wellbeing of the children he has fathered, as well as their mothers.
He started all this in 2007 with multiple methods, such as joining Facebook groups for those struggling to have kids.
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And no, in case you were wondering, this has not been happening in the 'traditional' way. Meijer is in fact a sperm donor.
He also registered at not one, but 11 clinics as a sperm donor as well as at the Cyros sperm bank.
The Donorkind Foundation, an organisation which supports donor-conceived children, opened up a legal case against Meijer, with the court ending up banning him from donating more sperm back in April.
Anyone who donates sperm in the Netherlands is subject to a limit of 25 children who can be conceived using their sperm.
This is to avoid potentially incestuous scenarios happening in the future where two people who were unknowingly conceived by the same donor end up in a relationship, as well as to minimise the risk of psychological trauma on donor babies.
Ties van der Meer, chair of the Donorkind Foundation, said that the organisation pursued a case to stop Meijer's sperm from being used to conceive any more children.
van der Meer said that Meijer, who now lives in Kenya, is believed to have fathered between 500 and 600 children from 13 different clinics around the world.
In a statement, van der Meer said: “We are taking action against this man because the national government is doing nothing.
“He has a global reach via the internet and he does business with large international sperm banks.”
Eva, who did not disclose her last name, is one of the women who have used Meijer as a donor, and is now concerned about her child's welfare.
She said: “If I had known he had already fathered more than 100 children I would never have chosen him.
“If I think about the consequences this could have for my child I am sick to my stomach… Many mothers have told him he needs to stop, but nothing helps. So going to court is the only option I have to protect my child.”
Meijer had previously been blacklisted after the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology revealed that he had fathered more than 100 children at 11 clinics in the Netherlands.
Guidelines in the country limit donors to 25 children as a way to minimise risk of incest, inbreeding, and psychological trauma for children who discover they have dozens of siblings.
But the Donorkind Foundation has now claimed that Meijer continued to donate internationally, often using a pseudonym.