Introduction
Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a Dutch musician who fathered at least 550 children around the world, is being sued by the Donorkind Foundation for allegedly increasing the risk of accidental incest. The foundation is taking action against him because the government is doing nothing to protect donor children. While he has been blacklisted in the Netherlands since 2017, he has continued to donate sperm abroad, including in Denmark and Ukraine.
Violation of Guidelines
According to Dutch guidelines, donors are not allowed to father more than 25 children or impregnate more than 12 women to prevent inbreeding, incest, or psychological problems for kids who find out they have myriad siblings. Mr. Meijer has donated sperm to at least 13 clinics, including 11 in the Netherlands, where he was blacklisted in 2017 for fathering 102 children. This means that he has violated the guidelines set by Dutch sperm clinics.
Civil Lawsuit
The Donorkind Foundation has filed a civil lawsuit against the prolific sperm donor as he has lied about the number of children he has fathered. The suit was brought by a Dutch woman who gave birth to one of Mr. Meijer’s kids in 2018. Donorkind attorney Mark de Hek said the court action was initiated after women repeatedly pleaded with Meijer to stop donating his sperm. Eva, the woman who filed the suit, wants him to stop fathering more children and wants all his stored sperm destroyed unless it is reserved for a woman who has already given birth to one of his children.
Risk of Accidental Incest
This civil case is being brought against Jonathan Jacob Meijer because there is nothing else being done about him violating how much government and Dutch clinics have allowed him to donate. The sperm donor allegedly put donor children at risk of accidental incest by fathering numerous children with multiple women. Donorkind Foundation is taking action against him because the organization believes he has put donor children’s physical and mental health in jeopardy.
Violation of Agreements
The lawyer representing the Donorkind Foundation states that the donor’s actions were illegal and violate agreements with clinics and prospective parents. Fertility clinics in the Netherlands are legally obligated to record information related to egg, semen, and embryo donations in a national registry and make it available to children, parents, and family doctors. Thus, using his pseudonym, Meijer allegedly wrote a “motivation letter” for the Danish sperm bank telling prospective parents that he wanted to help people realize their dreams of having kids.
Other Cases
The article mentions other cases in the Netherlands where fertility doctors have used their own semen to inseminate patients without their consent, violating the trust placed in the specialist. Donorkind identified ten doctors who had illegally used their own sperm to create children in the Netherlands last year. The Dutch gynaecologists’ association NVOG raised the alarm about Mr Meijer in 2017 after it emerged he had fathered at least 102 children through ten different clinics in the country.
Precautionary Measures
To prevent such incidents from happening again, the Dutch Parliament is studying a bill that would legally prevent one person from donating sperm to more than 12 families, both within and outside the country, in response to concerns. The Donorkind Foundation wants all of Mr. Meijer’s stored semen samples destroyed unless it is reserved for same-family-use but with ultra strict precautions for precautionary measures.
Conclusion
Donorkind expects judges to summon Jonathan Jacob Meijer to court by mid-April to deal with the allegations brought against him. The foundation will ask the court to order Meijer to stop donating and to have all his stored sperm destroyed unless it is reserved for a woman who has already given birth to one of his children. It remains to be seen what measures will be taken as this case unfolds, yet the story remain the newest headline in controversial cases within the Dutch sperm banking industry.
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