(Reuters) — A Dutch court on Friday ordered a man who judges say fathered between 500 and 600 children worldwide to stop donating sperm.
The court banned the 41-year-old Dutchman from donating any more semen to clinics. They could fine him 100,000 euros ($110,000) per violation.
The court also ordered the man to write to foreign clinics asking them to destroy all of his semen in stock, except for doses reserved for fathers who have already had his children.
The decision followed a civil lawsuit brought by a foundation representing the interests of Dutch donor children and parents who had turned to the man as a donor.
They claimed the man’s continued donations violated the privacy rights of his donor children, whose ability to form romantic relationships is hampered by fears of accidental incest and inbreeding.
The man’s numerous donations first came to light in 2017 and he was banned from donating at fertility clinics in the Netherlands, where he had already fathered more than 100 children.
However, he continued to donate abroad, including to the Danish sperm bank Cryos, which operates internationally.
The man also continued to offer himself as a donor on websites that match expectant parents with sperm donors, sometimes using a different name, according to the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.