A Netflix docuseries titled “The Man With 1000 Kids” has brought significant attention to the unregulated landscape of sperm donation, raising profound concerns about the lack of safeguards preventing donors barred in one country from continuing their contributions elsewhere.

Released recently, the series delves into the aftermath of Jonathan Meijer’s case, a Dutch man characterized as a serial sperm donor. Meijer facilitated pregnancies globally through sperm bank donations and private arrangements with prospective mothers, despite being banned from donating in the Netherlands by the Dutch Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2017.

Meijer’s actions have potentially resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of half-siblings who may be unaware of their shared parentage, heightening the risk of inadvertent consanguinity. Instances reported by The New York Times in 2021 underscored this risk, where some of Meijer’s offspring unknowingly connected on dating apps like Tinder.

Jordy Willekens, a half-brother residing in the Netherlands, recounted a poignant experience: “Once, I swiped on a sister and she swiped right on me at the same time. I have a very trained eye by now.”

Experts and advocates for donor-conceived individuals argue that Meijer’s case is not isolated. Wendy Kramer, director of the Donor Sibling Registry established in 2000 with her donor-conceived son Ryan, noted that the organization has connected over 26,000 half-siblings and donors worldwide, some discovering over 200 genetic matches.

“There’s no regulation. There’s no oversight,” Kramer emphasized.

Jody Madeira, a professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law specializing in fertility fraud, highlighted the ease with which banned donors can sidestep restrictions by donating in other countries. She lamented the absence of an international registry to monitor such activities, noting, “‘Shouldn’t’ doesn’t mean ‘can’t.’”

While several countries have guidelines on the maximum number of offspring per sperm donor, these are often recommendations rather than enforceable laws. For instance, in the Netherlands, nonbinding guidelines limit clinic donors to 25 children. In the U.S., guidelines from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine suggest a cap of 25 children per donor in a population of 800,000. Norway limits donors to eight children, Spain to six children, and Sweden to 12 children across six families.

Meijer responded to these regulations by criticizing them for exacerbating donor shortages. He defended his extensive donation history, asserting compliance with international sperm bank guidelines that do not mandate informing parents about the number of offspring from a donor.

However, inquiries into the donor screening processes of prominent international sperm banks mentioned by Meijer, such as California Cryobank and Cryos International based in Denmark, yielded no responses.

Cryos International publicly states that donors contractually commit exclusively to their services, precluding donations to other sperm banks or tissue centers. Such clauses aim to prevent the proliferation of offspring from a single donor.

Despite regulatory measures governing donor screening and testing in the U.S., there remains no standardized approach to tracking the number of children born from a single donor or managing cases where donors banned in one country continue donations elsewhere.

Efforts to establish a global registry of sperm donors are currently nonexistent. However, Colorado plans to implement a pioneering law next year mandating disclosure of donor identities to donor-conceived individuals upon reaching 18 years old. This legislation, the first of its kind in the U.S., aims to enhance transparency and access to medical records for those conceived through assisted reproductive technologies.

Erin Jackson, founder of We Are Donor Conceived, a support group with approximately 3,600 members, shared her experiences as a donor-conceived individual who has discovered several half-siblings. She highlighted the challenges of navigating familial connections across borders, complicated by geographical distances and cultural disparities.

Reflecting on Meijer’s prolific donations, Jackson remarked, “There just aren’t legal protections that would stop someone from doing this.”

“This type of situation causes a lot of psychological damage,” she added. “I can’t imagine being one of this guy’s children.”