'The Man With 1000 Kids' documentary raises ethical debate
Netflix's latest documentary raises eyebrows...
There is a man today who may have fathered over a thousand children and is still going - that's the opening line of a viral Netflix documentary called, 'The Man With 1000 Kids'.
The documentary was released this month and continues to top the list for documentaries on Netflix.
Jonathan Meijer, a Dutch man in his early 40s, shocked the world when it was discovered that he is one of the biggest sperm donors that has ever lived.
He has fathered, in his estimation, about 550 children via sperm donation since he was in his 20s, reports Today.com.
Jonathan is described as a man with beautiful blonde hair, a big smile, a good set of teeth, and bright blue eyes - a plus for some of the women who wanted to have beautiful babies but couldn't conceive naturally.
The man became a private sperm donor for some of the women who searched online for a donor. For some of his clients, he would sleep with them, while for others, a self-insemination method would be used.
One of the clinics in the Netherlands where he was registered as a sperm donor found out that he had lied about the number of times he has donated his sperm. According to Today.com, in the Netherlands, guidelines limit donors to producing no more than 25 children with a maximum of 12 mothers.
His actions led to him dealing with legal charges for fathering 'at least 500 children'.
The Dutch Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology banned him from donating sperm in the Netherlands in 2017. However, he continued to donate his sperm. In 2023, the Netherlands’ Hague District Court banned him from donating his sperm, and ordered him to pay a fine of 100,000 Euro (about R2-million) per case if he violated the ban, according to the Associated Press.
Despite the ban, Jonathan kept donating sperm.
READ: Mother in legal battle to have her dead daughter’s eggs
In an interview with Today.com, Jonathan claimed he never misled anyone or lied about the number of sperm donations.
“Technically didn’t lie, I followed the guidelines of every large commercial international sperm bank that do not inform the recipients about the amount of offspring one donor will produce,” he told TODAY.com.
Jonathan claimed that he offered a better service to hopeful families than a sperm clinic could.
“I am one of the best donors: I gave higher quality than any sperm bank can give,” he said in his email.
He reportedly wants to have the most children in history.
READ: Woman sues sperm donor who lied about his ethnicity, educational background
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