Donor kids can use fertility doc's DNA to find out if he is their father
The court in Rotterdam gave a number of children conceived through a sperm donor clinic permission to use the DNA of fertility doctor Jan Karbaat to find out whether he used his own sperm to inseminate their mothers and is therefore their biological father. With this ruling on Wednesday the court in Rotterdam put an end to years of uncertainty for dozens of people, AD reports.
Karbaat ran sperm donor clinic MC Blijdorp in Barendrecht since the 1980s. There are strong suspicions that he inseminated women with his own semen, instead of that of a donor. He once admitted doing so to a donor child, and some donor children look a lot like Karbaat. Through the DNA database of Fiom, a center for decent questions, at least 47 donor children's DNA were matched to a legitimate child of Karbaat. A group of these children now want to compare their DNA to Karbaat's own DNA to find out for certain whether or not he is their biological father.
To gain clarity, 22 donor children and 11 parents demanded a DNA test in a court case in 2017. Karbaat died a month before the lawsuit. But the court still gave permission for a DNA investigation. 27 articles were collected from Karbaat's home and used to create his DNA profile. But as the court only gave permission to "secure" his DNA, the children and parents weren't able to compare it with their own DNA. In November last year the children and parents went back to court to gain access to Karbaat's DNA.
Karbaat's relatives refuse to cooperate with a DNA investigation. They believe Karbaat's privacy outweighs the interests of the donor children, and point out that he always said that he does not want DNA taken from him or his legitimate children. During a hearing in November, lawyer Kim Kuster said that there was "no proof", and that all accusations are "false", "sensational" and "out of nowhere".
But the court disagreed. On Wednesday the court in Rotterdam largely awarded all claims. "Information is unreliable, important agreements with patients were not fulfilled. Karbaat did not fulfill his duty of care as a doctor", the judge said, according to the newspaper. The court said that the plaintiffs made it sufficiently plausible that a number of donor children may descend from Karbaat. And even those who don't have unnecessarily been left in uncertainty. According to the court, Karbaat's personal interests are not affected by a DNA investigation, and those interests don't outweigh that of the donor children.
