El hombre de los 1000 hijos

Every time I watch a Netflix docuseries with my mouth slack-jawed and eyes widened, I think it has to be the most outrageous thing I've seen, and then a few months later, it's a whole other story of people being awful. This time around, it's a Dutch man who is a serial sperm donor and has anywhere from 600 to 3,000 kids (!). The series is only three episodes, insane from beginning to end, and also kind of icky, with women seeking him out because he had long blond hair, blue eyes, and is (supposedly) Nordic and handsome. I thought he was gross with a serious god-complex, and completely dismissive of the possibility of consanguinity with so many offspring running around. I blame all this hyper-natalism on Elon Musk and other white fanboys, one of whom said they were donating in Kenya so they could "bleach Africa white". Aaargh.

Unbelievable how many commentators here on IMDB call these women the most nasty things possible. Who do these sanctimonious people think they are? Calling them unnatural, bad, disgusting etc etc. And some are supporting the sperm donor, Jonathan. These commentators are evil. The women in this documentary trusted Jonathan. And others trusted the fertility clinic or the website they found online. Then they are confronted with a defunct system. Fertility clinics not being in contact with each other. Not syncing their digital files. Jonathan lying to these women. Lying about that he just helped so and so much women. And then these women are considered selfish? Unnatural? If these women behave unnatural then going to a doctor to be cured from a pneumonia is unnatural also. The nerve of these commentators. I think IMDB has a duty to monitor these comments and to remove their comments. These people are insulting the women who participated. They are ideologically and politically biased. And probably religiously. And the misogyny of some of them. My goodness. Supporting or giving advice to spermdonor Jonathan, even. This documentary shows how we just can't trust fully the medical system around us. We always need to check and double check. When sperm donors promise on a piece of paper that they won't work with other fertility clinics or with other women or couples, it should be under supervision of a notary or within some other legal context, where when the donor is behaving against the agreement he risks jail time or he will be punished financially. It's 2024 and that this was recently possible in a well organised society, says a lot about how badly our societies still are organised.

This documentary features interviews from a variety of parents who used the services of the same sperm donor without knowing it at first.

The man, Jonathan Meijer, donated sperm through a variety of clinics--signing declarations of exclusivity, but those were not enforced.

He also donated through facebook groups, freeform and without those same contractual restrictions.

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The problem comes in both that he intentionally and willfully breaches the women's trust and that the industry itself did not enforce their own standards.

By not enforcing the restrictions, a statistically unacceptable probability of children of the same donor interacting and perhaps even marrying may take place.

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After a lawsuit, the court issued a groundbreaking decree that restricted Meijer's bodily autonomy and right to donate further sperm, rather than just giving more teeth and punishments based on contract violations with the clinics.

Meijer, whose narcissism created a thousand children, is now precluded from having more.

Meanwhile, as the final title cards note, the industry itself still has the same flaws and cannot seem to accurately promise or enforce any limit on the number of children a donor has.

Since it's a huge industry, this ending left viewers with a feeling that while this one obviously extreme case is solved others (such as those mentioned in passing) are still out there.

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While the tale is cautionary and that's fine, I'd call this mini series "second screen" at most because it could have said the same thing in one segment.

The court case, while ground breaking, also doesn't solve the central issue of the industry's problem.

And as for the serial dad? He's incredibly dull as portrayed in this film. (Not to say that the film should be a hype machine, but if his solo punishment is the focus at the end, perhaps give us more insights on his background and reasoning than a few weak guesses.)

How can Netflix make this dull? Not sure, but they did. Would not recommend.

You know what they say, "Look before you leap.". In this case, investigate before you baste.

There are so many unwanted and abused children in this world. It is awful to see people who desperately want to have a child to live be messed with this way, not to mention what this narcissist is as done to innocent children. This creep claims to have spent 50,000 hours helping people. Think about it. Yuck.

They say there is more regulation of animal breeding than sperm donation. Let's hope this disturbing story leads to better regulation.

It doesn't matter how you feel about artificial insemination. Innocent children are involved here. This docuseries gets more disturbing each episode.

A group of Dutch mums to be are delighted to have found the perfect sperm donor, YouTuber Jonathan Meijer, a handsome Dutchman, with perfect hair and teeth, and a bizarre ambition, to father as many babies as possible.

It's like a plot from a sci fi series, it really is insane, its such a bizarre and twisted storyline.

It held my attention, possibly morbid curiosity, I had to keep watching.

Jonathan's story is such a bizarre one, I would have loved to know what he wanted out of it, was it simply to fill the world with his offspring, or was there something else to it? I was also puzzled to see if any of his actions were criminal or not.

A three part series, I'm glad they kept it at that, it would have been overlong, they just about get away with three. It is a little slow in parts, and why Netflix insist on these recreation scenes with real people, they are so pointless.

Will there be a follow up in twenty years or so, as his offspring move into adulthood, I wouldn't get against it.

7/10.