Man Who's Fathered 550 Children Has Been Banned From Having Any More

Image: CEN

A man found himself facing a court case due to having fathered more than 500 children, raising concerns about the possibility of incest.

Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a 42-year-old musician from the Netherlands, apparently refused to quit despite worries for the safety and welfare of the moms and children he had fathered.

He began doing all of this in 2007 using a variety of techniques, like joining Facebook communities for people who were having trouble becoming pregnant.

In case you were wondering, the "traditional" manner for this to be happening has not been the case. Meijer actually donates sperm.

Along with the Cyros sperm bank, he also enrolled as a sperm donor at not one, but eleven clinics.

The Donorkind Foundation, a group that advocates for donor conception, filed a lawsuit against Meijer, and the court ultimately barred him from providing any further sperm back in April.

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There is a 25-child cap on the number of children who can be conceived with a donor's sperm in the Netherlands.

This is done to reduce the chance of donor kids experiencing psychological damage as well as to prevent potentially incestuous situations in the future where two people who were unwittingly conceived by the same donor wind up in a relationship.

The Donorkind Foundation pursued a case to prevent the use of Meijer's sperm to conceive any additional children, according to Ties van der Meer, the organization's chair.

Meijer is thought to have fathered between 500 and 600 children from 13 different clinics around the world, according to van der Meer, who now resides in Kenya.

In a statement, van der Meer said: “We are taking action against this man because the national government is doing nothing.”

“He has a global reach via the internet and he does business with large international sperm banks.”

One of the ladies who utilized Meijer as a donor is Eva, who opted not to give her last name, and she is now worried about the welfare of her child.

She said: “If I had known he had already fathered more than 100 children I would never have chosen him.”

“If I think about the consequences this could have for my child I am sick to my stomach… Many mothers have told him he needs to stop, but nothing helps. So going to court is the only option I have to protect my child.”

Meijer was already on the blacklist when the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reported that he had fathered more than 100 children at 11 clinics in the Netherlands.

Image: CEN

To reduce the likelihood of incest, inbreeding, and psychological trauma for children who learn they have a large number of siblings, country regulations place a limit on donors of 25 children.

The Donorkind Foundation, however, now asserts that Meijer continued to give abroad while frequently using a fictitious name.

The situation with Meijer's many donations and the legal fight highlights the importance of strict rules to protect everyone involved in assisted reproductive technology.