Sperm donors need limits, says a European fertility group

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/10/1140289/sperm-donors-need-limits-says-a-european-fertility-group/

4 5 11 days ago

The prolific sperm donors who have fathered hundreds and some cases thousands of children seem to have unhealthy compulsions/obsessions- often if they are banned at certain clinics or donating in specific countries they go elsewhere and continue to donate under new identities.

I wonder what their motivation is - ego? Fixation on legacy? Sexual kink?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/netflixs-man-1000-kids-pu...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65429936

A Dutch man suspected of fathering more than 550 children worldwide through sperm donations has been ordered to stop. The man named Jonathan, aged 41, could be fined more than €100,000 (£88,000) if he tries to donate again. He was banned from donating to fertility clinics in the Netherlands in 2017 after it emerged he had fathered more than 100 children. But instead of stopping he carried on donating sperm abroad and online. A court in The Hague has told him to provide a list of all the clinics he had used and to order them to destroy his sperm. The man was said to have misled hundreds of women.

zhoBEENG2• 11 days ago

From an evolutionary fitness perspective, it makes sense as a kind of loophole for easily reproducing and distributing your genetic material in a way likely to lead to many successful family trees. This might actually be one of the best strategies.

SvenL• 11 days ago

I think the issue is could be that your new partner might be your half sister/half brother which could yield some problems.

andsoitis• 11 days ago

He describes the situation as “problematic.” Children have a right to know their biological parents, he says.

Why?

Sperm donors need limits, says a European fertility group

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