The three-part documentary format The Man with 1000 Children has been on the Netflix charts since this week. It tells the incredible story of Jonathan Meijer, who is at the centre of a major sperm donation scandal after he withheld from numerous families seeking seeds how often he had already made his genetic material available. These families now got to the bottom of the matter.
In the Netherlands alone, Meijer donated to eleven sperm banks, and internationally there are many more. In court, which has since banned him from reproducing in his home country, he admitted to having fathered around 600 children. If you add up his worldwide and private donations in other countries, the number is closer to 3,000, according to the documentary.
Shocking documentary on Netflix: The man with 1000 children can’t stop spreading his seed
The donation of semen is not very strictly regulated, which is why there are hardly any international legal consequences for the self-made breeding bull. With offspring in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine, Switzerland and the United States, however, dangerous consequences of incest to his biological children and grandchildren. Should they unknowingly become involved with each other and have children of their own.
Netflix
The man The man with 1000 childrenwith 1000 children
Online, the documentary mainly triggers shock, disgust and incomprehension. “This guy is the definition of narcissism and god complex”writes someone on Reddit . But it wouldn’t be the Internet if there weren’t those who defended the powerful Dutchman.
On his own YouTube channel, the generous donor criticizes the Netflix documentary for not being rational and “female energy” His comment column celebrates him in part as “modern Genghis Khan”.
If you want to see The Man with 1000 Children for yourself, you’ll need about 125 minutes of streaming and a Netflix account.