A RETIRED sperm donor has hit back after becoming the subject of a Netflix documentary on how he may have fathered thousands of children across the globe.
Jonathan Meijer says he became a donor to help others and give himself purpose on his YouTube channel, but not everyone is happy about it.
Now, the 43-year-old is the subject of the Netflix show, The Man with 1000 Kids, which features the women who used his services to have children, and the way it has affected them.
More women on the new series have accused the donor of being a narcissist with a ‘God-like complex’, claiming he deliberately underplayed how many children he had fathered and revelled in the control he had.
But the Dutch man, who has hundreds of children ranging between five and 16 years old across the world, told the Daily Mail his only aim was to do something meaningful with his life.
“I don’t like to use the word ‘addiction’ but you feel so rewarded, it’s absolutely wonderful,” he said.
“It’s a blessing if you can experience it only once in a life but I was experiencing it on many days, and still am, because people update me about what is happening with their children.”
The part time musician and Youtuber says he has met a large number of the children and claims they all seem happy, despite receiving criticism that he has caused a huge risk of incest.
Jonathan added: “From what I have seen, the children are happy. Some have met half siblings. They go on holiday, they meet each other.”
But in a recent video Jonathan hit back at claims from the show that he didn’t take care to reduce the risk of inbreeding between his children.
Walking in Hollywood, he said: “My donor children all know that they are from a donor, they know my name, I chose the parents that I would help with very much care, very carefully, meaning that I wanted them.
“One of my demands was that they will be telling the children that first, they are from a donor and second, that I am their donor so this means that they will always at a certain age, very young, know my identity.
“I am a open identity donor I did this consciously for that reason for the effect of inbreeding to make sure that this would not happen to them.”
The documentary features the allegation by one woman that the donor had secretly mixed his reproductive fluid with that of another donor to play ‘sperm roulette’.
Jonathan, who used to teach social studies, branded the claim ‘rubbish’, saying he was considering suing Netflix.
But the main criticism of Jonathan’s is that multiple people now share the same genes and may not know.
COUPLES struggling to have a baby of their own, or same sex families, may need the help of a sperm donation.
A sperm donor needs to undergo some tests before donating.
According to CoParent.co.uk, centres may require donors to:
To find the nearest licensed clinic, check out the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) website.
The risk of consanguinity – when a couple are blood relatives – is heightened. This can cause potential birth defects.
He insists he keeps track of the children he fathers which he estimates to be around 550, but critics claim his guess is too conservative.
Jonathan started donating at the age of 26, but he moved into private donations so people wouldn’t have to pay extortionate fees from facilities.
In the show, some claim he came to their house to donate the sperm in a cup which the women would then use with a syringe to get pregnant.
One woman he made contact with, Vanessa, says he ‘offered to donate in the traditional way’ which he doesn’t deny in the Netflix documentary.
Now Jonathan has been banned form donating any more sperm and risks an £85,000 fine if he breaks it.
