A 43-year-old man from Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands, wrote a letter. It was addressed to dozens of families who had once turned to his sperm to have children. In it, he acknowledged a figure that even the authorities did not know exactly: 199 children born in four European countries carry his genetic material.
The breakdown is precise. 172 births occurred in the Netherlands, 11 in Belgium, 15 in Germany, and one more in a fourth country that was not identified. He claimed that he had stopped donating, although he admitted that a woman who is still pregnant is expecting a child of his. What is striking is that the Dutch Ministry of Health had known since 2017 that this man donated regularly and excessively, and yet, two years later, it appointed him to an official commission evaluating the country’s donation law.
Several recipient women reported receiving sexually explicit messages from him, and some sources suggest that he may have offered his sperm in exchange for sexual relations with those seeking to become mothers. It is also said that he used different names at several sperm banks to continue donating without being detected.