Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Documentaries, Netflix, Parenting, Real Life, TV And Film, True Life, World News
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Documentaries, Netflix, Parenting, Real Life, TV And Film, True Life, World News
There's a brand-new documentary that has just dropped today (3 July) and its story is truly harrowing.
Based on real-life events, the three-part Netflix series tells the true story of a serial sperm donor and the families who tried to stop him.
The doc takes on the 'monumental task' of trying to piece together the absolute chaos wreaked by the man whose donations spanned across several countries and continents - in addition to 11 sperm banks in the Netherlands and several private donations.
The man who is the subject of the docu-series is 43-year-old Jonathan Meijer and, according to Netflix, Meijer - who hails from the Netherlands - has fathered 1000 children through sperm donations.
Advert
Meijer reportedly first started donating sperm back in 2007 and carried on doing so until he reached the Netherlands' national limit of children a person can supply sperm for, 25.
Then, just last year, it was reported by ABC that Meijer fathered more than 600 kids.
However, the doc claims that the number may be a lot higher than that figure as he allegedly travelled across the globe to carry on donating and reportedly operated under several aliases.
In the doc, clinical embryologist, Dr. Max Curfs explains that limits on sperm donation exist in order to protect the resulting children from the risk of consanguineous relationships, or unwitting incest.
Now, in Meijer's initial correspondences, he claimed that he only intended to donate sperm to a handful of families - but in time, it became clear that he’d lied to many of them and had been doing so and getting away with it for years.
Everything changed, however, when a doctor at the Isala Fertility Center received an 'anonymous email' alleging that one of their donors had possibly fathered more than 150 children in the Netherlands alone.
The name of the series, by the way, is The Man with 1000 Kids and you can check out the official trailer here:
In the first episode of The Man with 1000 Kids, Dr. Curfs, who works at the fertility centre, explains that they start with a 'written agreement' that a donor will not be active for other clinics or women and will only donate to their clinic due to the country's limit of 25 children per donor.
However, he found out one of their sperm donors had 'deceived' him.
Recalling the moment, Dr. Curfs said: "I was at work as I received an anonymous email.
"The message was hard to believe."
According to the embryologist, the email read: "Dear fertility doctor,
"There's a sperm donor active on the internet who probably has more than 150 children in the Netherlands. He goes under several aliases.
"The donor indicates to prospective wish parents that he wants to be a donor a maximum of five times."
It continued: "Most of his children were conceived via self-insemination at the homes of intended mothers.
"However, he has also been a sperm donor at many clinics in the Netherlands."
After reading out the harrowing email, Dr. Curfs recounted: "I was shocked. Really shocked.
"The reason that we have a guideline that a sperm donor could not have more children than 25 is to reduce the risk of consanguinity - that's half-siblings that are not aware that they are half-siblings are attracted to each other and will have children together."
Remembering how he felt after reading the email, the embryologist added: "If the story was true, what will it mean in the future for the children?"
Well, director Josh Allott tells Tudum: "I did meet [Jonathan] in order to speak to him about being in the documentary.
"We approached him a number of times to be interviewed and gave him a right to reply at the end. He refused to comment on any of the allegations in the series."
Executive producer Natalie Hill added: "A couple of weeks ago, he was in Zanzibar.
"He’s been very transparent about where he is in YouTube videos. And from what we know, he’s not had a steady job of any sort."
The Man with 1000 Kids is currently available to stream on Netflix.