Dutch sperm donor suing Netflix over “The Man with 1,000 Kids” documentary

The Dutch mass sperm donor Jonathan Meijer is going to sue Netflix. He wants the streaming platform to take the documentary 'The Man with 1000 Kids', of which he is the subject, offline. He said this on Tuesday night on the talk show Eva on NPO 1.

According to the sperm donor, the film damages him, the donor's children, and their parents. He told presenter Eva Jinek that the documentary was not based on the numbers and that no thorough background check had been conducted. He denies conceiving 3000 children, as is stated in the documentary, and said that the actual number is 550 children. "Everything that comes after that is speculation," said Meijer.

He had to appear in court last year, which ruled that he had to stop providing his sperm. The court said that Meijer lied about his sperm donations. He told the people who wanted to use his donation that he had a maximum of 25 donor children, which is the maximum number that individual clinics have for sperm donors.

The case was brought by Stichting Donorkind, an organization that represents the interests of donor children, brings them into contact with each other and donors, and helps search for their origins. The mass donation is dangerous for the children's health and bad for their wellbeing, said the organization. For example, donor children can later in life unknowingly have a child with someone who is genetically their half-brother or sister, which can also be harmful to their offspring.

Meijer said on Tuesday night that he stopped donating in 2019 except for to families who wanted a second or third child from him. By taking Netflix to court, he wants to "protect the children against the media's lust to make this some kind of spectacle," he added.

Lawyers Gerard Spong and Peter Plasman think that the case against Netflix has no chance of success, they told Eva Jinek. According to them, the documentary serves a societal purpose because future prospective parents are being notified of the mass donor.

They added that Netflix would have done thorough research with enough non-anonymous sources. Jonathan was also given the opportunity to respond, but he did not want to. "I do not want to cooperate with such a shady company," he said. I can share everything myself on my YouTube channel."