The Dutch foundation Donorkind helps donor offsprings find their biological fathers — and during the past five years, they found ten cases of doctors using their own sperm without the consent of their patients, reports NU.nl.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time a story like this comes to light.
Dutch fertility doctor Jan Karbaat made headlines a couple of years ago for having fathered 71 children by using his own sperm on women seeking his help to become pregnant.
Stigma as an added burden
News of fertility doctors being amongst the biological fathers is especially difficult for donor offsprings, tells board member of Donorkind Ester de Lau NU.nl.
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“When there’s a doctor in the news, we receive a surge of requests from donor children,” she says. Being the donor child of a fertility doctor is also stigmatising. “‘To be conceived by the doctor’ is an added handicap.”
Finding biological fathers
Donorkind helps donor children to find their biological fathers through international DNA databanks like MyHeritage.
This can be quite the puzzle sometimes, but usually, their search is successful, says de Lau.
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Over the past five years, between 150 to 200 biological fathers have been identified.
Donor Child Day
News like this is especially sad on days like today, May 30, the official ‘Donor Child Day’ (Dag van het Donorkind) in the Netherlands.
Conception through donorship should be celebrated instead of being tainted by fear and distrust. Donorkind, therefore, tries to keep newly found cases of criminal fertility doctors from the press.
This way, the children of these doctors can take matters into their own hands and decide whether or not they wish to contact their biological family or bring up the matter to the press.
Have you heard of fertility doctors illicitly fathering donor children in the Netherlands? Tell us in the comments below!
