The so-called ‘Man With 1000 Kids’, Jonathan Meijer, has addressed the risk of incest after the issue was raised in the Netflix documentary series.
Last year, Meijer received a ban on donating sperm after clinics in the Netherlands discovered he had far surpassed the country’s 25 donor baby limit.
According to Meijer, he’s fathered 550 babies since 2007, although estimates say the figure could be as high as 3,000.
As highlighted in The Man With 1000 Kids, the danger with so many babies from one person is that it runs the risk of unintentional incest.
Fertility fraud activist Eve Wiley explains in the Netflix docu-series, “Let’s just say that if one donor had 500 offspring, we could realistically say that in 100 years, they could have 15,000 descendants. That is a huge biodiversity concern.”
Meijer has now addressed the risk of incest among his children in an interview with LADbible, where he was asked whether he sees the scale of his donations as unethical.
“Not at all. I’ve thought about it. I’ve been a donor for 17 years now, and I thought about it, of course, every day, and it would be a problem if a donor was fully anonymous, because then the child will never have the option to find out,” he told the outlet.
“But also, there were no DNA tests back then. Now, I am an open identity donor. I’ve never donated anonymously. I’m opposed to it. I think it’s very good if donors are open.”
Speaking about how he keeps his identity known, Meijer continued, “Children would have the chance to know my identity.
“Plus, they get informed by the parents that they’re from a donor, and most of them are from, like, lesbian couples or single mothers. So, that’s very obvious.”
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According to his accounts, what he does is “not uncommon,” saying that the international commercial clinics he donates to ship to different countries around the world, respecting each region’s limit.
However, Meijer acknowledged that in the Netherlands, he “helped in that regard too much,” adding, “You can say, ‘Okay, maybe that will be a situation.’”
He also slammed the documentary, saying that he declined to take part when he found out it would focus on him.
“This is just pure sensation, and it’s no good for the children and the parents that I’ve helped,” he said, describing Netflix as the “McDonald’s” of the streaming world.
A number of the parents of Meijer’s children appear in The Man With 1000 Kids, alleging that he deceived them into believing he was only helping out five families maximum.
One woman named Nicolette from the Netherlands describes discovering that not only did she work with another mother of one of Meijer’s kids, but the half-siblings went to school together.
In the interview, Meijer has claimed that these parents are just a “minority” and most of those he’s helped are “happy.”
The Man With 1000 Kids is streaming on Netflix now. For more true crime, check out the documentaries coming to streaming this month. You can also find out who Smegma is in relation to the Sherri Papini case, what Tell Them You Love Me is all about, and where Janie Lynn Ridd is now.