A Dutch man suspected of fathering over 550 children through sperm donations around the world has been told to cease.
If Jonathan, 41, tries to give again, he might face a punishment of more than €100,000 (£88,000).
In 2017, he was barred from donating to fertility clinics in the Netherlands when it was revealed that he had fathered more than 100 children.
Instead of quitting, he continued to donate sperm abroad and online.
A court in the Hague has ordered him to produce a list of all the clinics he has used and to have his sperm destroyed.
Hundreds of women were reported to have been duped by the man.
According to Dutch clinical recommendations, a donor should not father more than 25 children in 12 families.
They are asked to restrict the number of times they give their services in order to prevent the possibility of siblings unintentionally becoming a relationship and having children together.
However, judges determined that the man had contributed to the birth of between 550 and 600 children since he began donating sperm in 2007.
A foundation protecting donor children’s rights, as well as the mother of one of the children reportedly fathered from his sperm, took him to court.
“The point is that this kinship network with hundreds of half-brothers and half-sisters is much too large,” said Gert-Mark Smelt, a court spokesman.
Over 100 of the man’s children were born in Dutch clinics or privately, but he also donated to a Danish clinic, which sent his sperm to addresses in various countries.
According to Judge Thera Hesselink, the court “forbids the defendant from donating his sperm to new prospective parents after the entry of this judgment.”
The guy is also barred from contacting any potential parents “with the hope of donating sperm… advertising his services to prospective parents, or joining any organization that establishes contact between prospective parents,” according to the judge.
According to the district court in The Hague, the donor “deliberately misinformed” potential parents about the number of children he had previously fathered in the past.
“All of these parents are now confronted with the fact that the children in their family are part of a huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings, which they did not choose,” the report added.
The court ruled that it was “sufficiently plausible” that the children would suffer negative psychological consequences as a result of this.
In the past, the Netherlands has been hit by fertility scandals.
In 2019, the father of 49 children was identified as a Dutch fertility specialist accused of using his own sperm to inseminate patients without their consent.
