(NewsNation) — The man at the center of a Netflix docuseries “The Man With 1000 Kids” is threatening to sue the streaming service for slander, saying it misrepresents what happened.
Jonathan Jacob Meijer took to YouTube to refute the stories of the five families profiled in the series, which centers around couples and women who found out that Meijer had fathered hundreds of children, leading to a risk of accidental in-breeding between half-siblings.
Meijer did not take part in the film and claims he has only fathered 550 children, not the 1,000 claimed in the title. But filmmakers say he lied to families about the number of offspring he had after donating to multiple sperm banks as well as making private donations. Some estimates put the number of possible children as high as 3,000.
On YouTube, Meijer said he initially gave couples the exact number of children but later stopped doing so because “this was very dangerous, if it falls into the wrong hands, people can destroy you.”
He said the docuseries was misleading because it didn’t speak to any families who were grateful for his help. Meijer suggested that the number of children who could potentially meet each other and become romantically involved without knowing they are half-siblings isn’t a serious concern due to cheap DNA tests and because parents would tell their children they are donor-conceived.
However, while DNA testing is widely available, there are risks associated with consumer DNA testing and people may choose not to use it for privacy reasons. While guidelines do recommend parents tell children they are donor-conceived, many do not, with studies from ten years ago finding half of all parents kept donor children’s origins a secret from them.
Meijer rejected characterizations of him as a serial donor and denied that he had an addiction to donating sperm.
There are few laws around sperm and egg donation in most countries, including the Netherlands, where Meijer lives. Non-binding guidelines there cap the number of children at 25 and say donors should only donate to one clinic in the country.
According to a 2021 New York Times report, Meijer donated to multiple clinics in the Netherlands and abroad, fathering at least 102 children through those clinics as well as at least 80 through private donations.
He was banned from donating sperm by the Dutch Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2017 but continued to donate internationally. Last year, a Dutch court banned him from donating with a fine of 100,000 euros per violation and told him to have sperm banks donate any remaining sperm from older donations.
In recent years, the potential complications of sperm and egg donation have made headlines as people have discovered they have large numbers of unknown siblings. Some have called for more regulation, citing not just the psychological impact of finding hundreds of siblings but the risk of incest from genetic sexual attraction, a phenomenon where siblings separated at birth who are unaware of their relationship feel a certain pull toward each other.
Even when countries do have regulations on donating sperm, there are no international guidelines and no way to stop donors like Meijer from traveling to other countries to continue fathering other children.
