A man who fathered up to 600 children around the world has been ordered by a Dutch court to stop donating sperm.
The 41-year-old Dutchman, identified by De Telegraaf as Jonathan Meijer, is no longer allowed to donate sperm to clinics, according to the court’s ruling.
He can be fined 100,000 euros per violation.
Judges also ordered Meijer, a musician from The Hague, to write to clinics abroad asking them to destroy all of his semen in stock, except doses reserved for parents who have already had children from him.
The decision came after a civil case was filed by a foundation that represents the interests of donor children and Dutch parents who had used Meijer as a donor.
The 41-year-old Dutchman, identified by De Telegraaf as Jonathan Meijer, is prohibited from donating more sperm to clinics, according to the court ruling.
They argued that Meijer’s continued donations violated the right to a private life of his donor children, whose ability to form romantic relationships is hampered by fears of accidental incest and inbreeding.
Meijer’s massive donations first came to light in 2017 and he was banned from donating to Dutch fertility clinics, where he had already fathered more than 100 children.
However, he continued to donate abroad, including to the Danish sperm bank Cryos, which operates internationally, and offered his services through websites and social media, according to Algemeen Dagblad.
Meijer also continued to list herself as a donor on sites that match prospective parents with sperm donors, sometimes under a different name, it said.
Mothers – with look-a-like children with curly blonde hair and piercing blue eyes – began to meet by chance. Some started online groups to find other women who had also used the same samples.
Eva, the Dutch woman at the center of the lawsuit, had a child by Mr Meijer in 2018 and said it made her ‘nauseous’ that he had fathered so many other children.
Earlier this year, she said: ‘If I had known he had fathered more than 100 children, I would never have chosen him. When I think about the consequences this could have for my child, my stomach hurts.
“Many mothers have told him to stop, but nothing helps. So going to court is the only option I have to protect my child.’
Eva and Stichting Donorkind wanted to stop Mr Meijer from donating and find out exactly to which clinics he donated sperm. They accused Meijer of having ‘lied’ to hundreds of women about the number of children he had fathered.
Judges have also ordered Meijer to write to clinics abroad asking them to destroy all of his sperm they have in stock, except for doses reserved for parents who have already had children from him.
Eva said she also wanted any of his semen still in storage to be destroyed, unless it’s reserved for a woman who already has one of his children.
Ties van der Meer, chairman of the foundation: ‘We are taking action against this man because the national government is not doing anything. He has a worldwide reach via the internet and does business with large, international sperm banks.’
Donor child’s lawyer, Mark de Hek, said: ‘This behavior is dangerous for the mental well-being and health of donor children. By preferring his reproductive urge, the donor is acting unlawfully.
“Moreover, he violates the agreements with the clinics and with the prospective parents, because they trusted his promise that he would father a maximum of 25 children.”
The case could have dire consequences. Van der Meer has spoken of concerns that Meijer’s children could meet in their teens and even fall for each other – unaware that they are biologically brother and sister.
The Netherlands is a small country with 17.5 million inhabitants. In 2020, just under 12 percent (about 2.1 million) were in the 15-24 age group.
In his online profile, Meijer allegedly claimed he resembled Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Chris Hemsworth, and Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant.
Julia – who wanted to start a family with her wife Ida – told the Daily Mail in March that she actually made him look more like a Viking.
Nevertheless, the couple – deciding he was “cute” – met him at a hotel to receive delivery of his sample, saying he came across as warm and sincere.
Since Meijer was not asking for compensation, they told the Daily Mail that they had no reason to doubt him when he said his motive for helping them was purely altruistic. They also believed him when he said he had helped create only “14 or 15” other children.
However, they later found out the truth about the number of children he has fathered, saying it shocked them to the core.
Julia and her wife said they are still convinced that Meijer is essentially “a nice guy.”
However, they suggested that he may have a psychological defect that has left him “addicted” to having children.
That or, said Julia, ‘he wants to be in Guinness World Records. Those are the only two reasons that can explain why he wants to spread his genes.’
Some of his “victims” have set up a Facebook page with the sinister-sounding name Donor 102 – the number of babies he was found to have fathered in 2017.
Pictured: File image of a liquid nitrogen cryogenic tank used for the sperm donation process
It was then that Dutch health authorities first discovered that he was secretly supplying sperm to almost every fertility clinic in the country.
This is much higher than the legal limit in the Netherlands, which allows donors to father 25 children with a maximum of 12 different women.
Since then, however, Meijer has defiantly continued to expand his huge ‘family’ by registering with sperm banks such as Denmark-based Cryos International, the world’s largest supplier, supplying over 100 countries, including the UK, and another major international fertility service. . clinic in Ukraine.
He was also found to be having private hookups over the internet where sperm donation is completely unregulated as Julia and Ida found out to their emotional damage.