The Dutch "super donor" Jonathan M., who has confirmed having helped conceive at least 550 children through sperm donations, is filing a complaint against streaming service Netflix, which made a series about him.
Jonathan M. refused to cooperate in the documentary 'The Man with 1000 Kids'. On Tuesday evening, he said on Dutch television that the series is not based on accurate figures as it claims M. has fathered over 3,000 children – a figure he disputes.
"550 is the figure I can confirm with certainty," he said. "All the rest is pure speculation. Therefore, I have filed a complaint to defend myself against the lies. I hope the series will also be taken offline from the streaming platform."
According to Stichting Donorkind, an association protecting the rights of children born through sperm donors, the man distributed his semen through over ten clinics in the Netherlands and abroad. There are strong suspicions that the man also fathered children in Belgium, as several Belgian hospitals have also used the man's sperm.
'Sensational Netflix series'
Last year, a Dutch court banned the man from donating any more sperm for new inseminations. In the Netherlands, the maximum number of children from one sperm donor is 25 (in a maximum of 12 families) to avoid inbreeding, incest and psychological problems in the donor children. In Belgium, a donor may conceive children in a maximum of six families.
According to the Dutch court, the "super donor" had deliberately withheld information from future parents about the number of children conceived partly thanks to him in the past, which could put the children at risk.
The man, however, feels that the documentary shows him in a bad light and harms the children he fathered as well as their parents, "who are dragged into a sensational Netflix series that does damage because they are recognised on the street." He claims he stopped donating sperm in 2019, except to families who wanted a second or third child from him.
By filing a lawsuit against Netflix, he wants to "protect children from the media's desire to make this into some kind of spectacle," he said.
