At least 85 men may have fathered over 1,000 children between them by exploiting a loophole in the sperm donation system.
The men are counted as "mass" sperm donors in the Netherlands, meaning they have fathered at least 25 men.
The most prominent of these men is Jonathan Meijer, who fathered at least 550 men and possibly as many as 1,000.
The scandal came to light in 2023, sparking legal changes that tightened up the rules.
Donors and mothers are now registered in a central national database, where they had previously only been linked to a clinic.
Marieke Schoonenberg, who runs the country’s professional association of gynaecologists, apologised for the scandal.
Jonathan Meijer. Picture: Alamy
"The number of mass donors in the clinics should have been zero," she said.
“We want to offer our apologies on behalf of the profession. We did not do it right.”
Some expressed fears that the children Meijer and other donors had fathered might lead to inbreeding.
Ties van der Meer, of the donor child foundation Stichting Donorkind, said: "The donor children involved can never date without worries.
"If they get into a relationship, they will always have to do a DNA test first to rule out that they are involved with a family member.”
The donor children involved can never date without worries,” he said. “If they get into a relationship, they will always have to do a DNA test first to rule out that they are involved with a family member.”
Meijer, whose story was dramatised in a Netflix documentary, advertised his services online to a family that wanted children.
He claimed he was only donating to five families, which turned out to be incorrect - he was working with over 200.
Meijer was also donating to several sperm banks.
His case sparked a national investigation, which turned up the 85 mass donors.
Meijer was ordered to stop donating sperm in 2023.
After the Netflix documentary was broadcast last year, Meijer complained that his actions had been misrepresented.
"They deliberately called [the documentary] The Man With 1,000 Kids, when it should be ’the sperm donor who helped families conceive with 550 children’," he said.
"So already from the start they are deliberately deceiving and misleading".
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