A Kenya-based Dutch musician and prolific sperm donor who has fathered about 550 children around the world is being sued for allegedly increasing the risk of accidental incest.
According to the New York Post, Jonathan Jacob Meijer, 41, has donated sperm to at least 13 clinics, including 11 in the Netherlands, where he was blacklisted in 2017 for fathering 102 children, the Times of London reported.
Under Dutch guidelines, sperm 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.
Meijer, who lives in Kenya, has continued to donate his sperm outside the Netherlands, including in Denmark and Ukraine, according to the Dutch DonorKind Foundation, which has filed a civil lawsuit against him.
The group alleges that the serial sperm donor has lied about the number of children he has fathered.
“We are taking action against this man because the government is doing nothing,” DonorKind Chairman Ties van der Meer told the Telegraph.
“He has a global reach via the internet and he does business with large, international sperm banks,” he added.
The suit was brought by a Dutch woman who gave birth to one of Meijer’s kids in 2018.
“If I had known he had already fathered more than 100 children I would never have chosen this donor,” said the woman, identified as Eva, according to the Times of London.
“When I think about the consequences this could have for my child I am sick to my stomach. Going to court is the only way to protect my child,” she added.
Women's plea to the sperm donor
DonorKind attorney Mark de Hek said the court action was initiated after women repeatedly pleaded with Meijer to stop donating his sperm.
“We and some of the mothers have approached him. They have asked him to stop. He refused. This is why legal action is the only option to protect children,” he said, according to the outlet.
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.
An Australian couple paid over $6,500 to Danish fertility clinic Cryos International for his sperm, which he donated under the pseudonym Ruud, the Times of London reported.
“We chose him because he was worldly, creative and very intelligent,” the Australian mother reportedly said. “He was open to meeting his donor children and he looks like my partner.
“He won’t be stopped. I think it’s disgusting and I’m incredibly angry and disappointed. I can’t believe I have to tell my child that he has hundreds of siblings,” she added.
The couple had been told the man’s sperm met Australian guidelines that donors can inseminate only five families, according to the outlet.
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.
Meijer refused to comment to Dutch newspaper AD and broadcaster NOS, the Telegraph reported.
“I like to see that there are children of mine all over the world,” the sperm donor said previously, according to the Times of London.
