Imane Rachidi |
The Hague, April 28 (EFE).- A Dutch court has ordered Jonathan M., a sperm donor who admits to having at least 550 biological children, to stop providing his semen to future parents to protect children from ” negative psychosocial consequences” of having “hundreds of half-siblings who did not choose”.
The Court of the Dutch city of The Hague ruled on Friday on this controversial case, denounced by a mother who gave birth to a child with Jonathan M.’s sperm and by the Donorkind Foundation, which initiated summary proceedings to stop the this donor, alleging that he “unnecessarily puts” their children at risk.
“In essence, this case deals with conflicting fundamental rights. On the one hand, the right to privacy of parents and children of donors, protected by article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and, on the other hand, the same right of the donor. The court is of the opinion that the interests of the children born by donation and their parents outweigh the interest of the donor to continue donating sperm to new future parents”, determined the Court.
rights issue
The complainants argued that Jonathan M. refuses to stop this practice, despite the rules that prevent him from having more than 25 children by donation, which violates several rights, including privacy, of parents and children.
It was easy for him to circumvent the rules because the Dutch clinics do not share data between them and there is no information about agreements that are reached privately between interested parties and men who offer their sperm through online platforms and social networks, something that Jonathan also did M., who also donated semen in other countries.
At the April 13 hearing, they assured that the actions of Jonathan M., 41, are dangerous, “given the scientifically proven risk of inbreeding, incest, and negative psychosocial consequences for children born by donation,” and hinders the freedom sexuality of the “children” because they must check if a possible partner is not a stepbrother of theirs.
For his part, Jonathan M. invoked his “right to freely decide whether to continue donating sperm” and defended that he was not “acting out of his own interest, but rather that of the future parents, whom he wants to help”, thus denying that this “harms” those children and the parents themselves.
The donor assured that the risk of incest is “very small” because his children can know who their father is by not being an anonymous donor, and regretted having become “the face of those who donate sperm on a large scale” in the Netherlands.
“I am presented as some kind of rabid bull with a procreative drive. I’m not. I do not believe in evolution, but in creation, ”she defended herself in the audience.
deliberately lied
However, in the ruling, the investigating judge today found that Jonathan M. “deliberately misinformed the parents” about the number of children he had already fathered and intended to father as a donor because “he knew that such information was decisive for their decision to accept it or not” as a candidate to provide them with their semen.
“This while he knew that they would not know how many children he had fathered as a donor and that he did not respect the limit. All of these parents are now faced with the fact that the children in their family are part of a huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings, who they did not choose,” the judge added.
Thus, it considered “sufficiently plausible that this has or may have negative psychosocial consequences for children”, so it is important that this kinship network “does not spread further”.
“The latter is also of interest to the donor’s children. Negative psychosocial consequences for children can include: making it difficult to maintain a relationship with so many biological half-siblings, having to deal with identity issues, and (fear of) increased risk of incest/consanguinity,” concluded the magistrate, who defined as “limited” the violation of the right to respect for privacy” of the donor.
In addition to this case, at least ten gynecologists were identified in the Netherlands who used their semen without the knowledge of women who wanted to get pregnant in their fertility clinics. One of them is Jan Karbaat, with 81 confirmed children. Or gynecologist Jan Wildschut, who fathered at least 47 children.
The latest case came to light last November. A Dutchman, who recently died of esophageal cancer, donated his sperm to women he contacted through the internet and would have fathered at least 80 children in the Netherlands.