(Show Review) The Man with 1000 Kids

Time to read: 2 min read

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There weren't four families or five families. There were already hundreds.

Review

In this bonkers real-life scandal, Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a prolific Dutch sperm donor, is put under scrutiny for over-donating by lying to parents looking for donors and obfuscating the number of donations he’s done. Meijer is suspected of fathering thousands of children worldwide, creating high risks for his children such as accidental incest.

The docuseries mainly focuses on Meijer and the various accusations against him. Meijer, who has an active Youtube channel, has since rebuked many of the claims made by the docuseries. While Meijer is definitely not the victim of the story, the truth is probably not as black and white as the docuseries portrays; there are some very viable claims made by Meijer against some of the testimony made by people in the docuseries, such as the claims of sperm mixing made by Patricia. Despite this, it’s clear that Meijer overstepped by lying to parents and purposefully circumventing measures for restricting over-donation.

This docuseries shines a light on a very twisted and perverse subculture of sperm donation; Meijer isn’t even the worst of it, the shocking misogynistic and racist comments made by some of the other members of the subcommunity are shocking, to say the least. It's also surprising how slow and toothless the Dutch justics system is in stopping Meijer from continuing to donate. There really has to be a more transparent and global way for tracking sperm donors so men with ulterior motives for donating cannot harm their children by over-donating.

The docuseries itself features in depth and emotional interviews with many of the parents involved with Meijer. The production is just OK but the subject matter is so bizarre that it’s intriguing in a macabre way. The docuseries did feel a bit slow and did not have to be three episodes long.

Conclusion

A peak into the disturbing world of serial sperm donation.

Overall rating: 7.1

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