Court docket says beneath Dutch pointers, sperm donors are allowed to supply a most of 25 kids with 12 moms.
A Dutch courtroom has banned a person from donating any extra of his sperm after he fathered not less than 550 kids within the Netherlands and different international locations and misled potential mother and father concerning the variety of offspring he helped to conceive.
A decide at The Hague District Court docket ordered the halt in an injunction on Friday introduced by the mom of a kid conceived with the donor’s sperm and a basis representing different mother and father.
The mom, recognized by the inspiration solely as Eva, welcomed the courtroom’s choice.
“I hope that this ruling results in a ban on mass donation and spreads like an oil slick to different international locations. We should stand hand in hand round our youngsters and shield them in opposition to this injustice,” Eva stated in a press release.
The courtroom famous beneath Dutch pointers, sperm donors are allowed to supply a most of 25 kids with 12 moms, and the donor lied to potential mother and father about his donation historical past.
The donor, recognized as Jonathan M beneath Dutch privateness pointers, supplied sperm to a number of Dutch fertility clinics and to a clinic in Denmark, in addition to to many different folks he linked with via commercials and on-line boards, the courtroom stated.
The donor’s lawyer stated in a courtroom listening to he wished to assist mother and father who would in any other case be unable to conceive.
‘Damaging psychosocial penalties’
The decide who heard the civil case stated the donor “intentionally lied about this in an effort to persuade the mother and father to take him as a donor”.
“All these mother and father are actually confronted with the truth that the youngsters of their household are a part of an enormous kinship community, with a whole bunch of half-siblings, which they didn’t select,” the courtroom stated, including this “might probably have unfavorable psychosocial penalties for the youngsters”.
The case was about “conflicting basic rights. On the one hand, the fitting to respect the privateness of the mother and father and the donor kids … and however the identical proper of the donor”, it stated.
The courtroom dominated “the pursuits of the donor kids and their mother and father outweigh the curiosity of the donor in persevering with to donate sperm to new potential mother and father”.
Jonathan M was ordered to instantly halt all sperm donations and pay 100,000 euros ($110,000) per case if he breaches the ban.
Lawyer Mark de Hek known as the ruling “a transparent sign and, so far as I’m involved, a remaining warning to different mass donors”.
The case is the most recent in a collection of fertility scandals to hit the Netherlands.
In 2020, a deceased gynaecologist was accused of fathering not less than 17 kids with ladies pondering they have been receiving sperm from nameless donors.
The yr earlier than, it emerged a Rotterdam physician fathered not less than 49 kids whereas inseminating ladies looking for therapy.