Netflix documentary on Dutch sperm donor with 1,000 kids has a dozen parents concerned
A dozen concerned parents have reported to the Donorkind Foundation after the Netflix documentary The Man with 1000 Kids. They worry that the Dutch sperm donor in the documentary, Jonathan Meijer, also fathered their children. Another 15 to 20 parents have contacted the foundation about another mass sperm donor mentioned in the series, named Leon, the Telegraaf reports.
“We have received questions from Ireland to Spain,” Ties van der Meer, chairman of the Donorkind Foundation, which supports children conceived through sperm donation in the Netherlands, told the newspaper. “Leon’s description rang a bell for several parents.”
According to Van der Meer, it is “very intense” for a parent to find out in this way that their child may have dozens - or in Meijer’s case - hundreds to thousands of half-siblings. “The clinics that used Johnathan as a sperm donor were most likely not able to inform all parents,” he said. “That is certainly the case at international clinics, where Ruud from the Cyros sperm bank, for example, was also Jonathan.”
Parents who have concerns after watching the Netflix series should contact their clinic. “They are ultimately responsible and have promised to adhere to the guideline of the maximum number of children per donor,” Van der Meer said. “Parents who want certainty can have a DNA test done, such as through MyHeritage. We know that both Jonathan and several of his children are on there.”
In the Netherlands, sperm donors are allowed to conceive a maximum of 25 children from 12 families. It is unclear how many Meijer has conceived. According to the documentary, it is anywhere between 550 and 3,000 children. The man is proclaiming his innocence on his YouTube channel, saying that the documentary is full of lies and exaggerations and that he only wanted to help people who are “deeply sad because they cannot have children of their own.”
“We resent that he tries to portray it this way,” Van der Meer said. The Donorkind Foundation also helped with the documentary. “If he wanted to do something good, he would have stopped. He would have put the children first. But he didn’t do that.”
