The Man with 1000 Kids

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.

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.

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 man must be permanently stopped, anywhere in the world. And the donor system must be better regulated since he isn't, and won't be, the only one.

At the risk of sounding like victim blaming, however, sometimes some people can be a little shallow with looks - the most cliché form of beauty propagated endlessly by media - and they can be easily duped by cheap compliments. You could hear them talking how they might feel it's wrong or even disgusting at times, yet they went through with it because they're charmed. After learning what's transpired and that there could be intentional mixed-ups, two of the parents were even relieved that both their children got their DNAs from Mr. B&B whom they've selected from an online menu. I'm sure for them the decision to have a baby was made with utmost gravity, but the way some of them went about it - similar to that of marketplace online shopping - suggests otherwise.

The irony is that we might repeatedly teach our kids "it's the inside that counts," yet when we want to conceive, we might be obsessed with a certain type of beauty. This has to stop. After all, this is NOT the first time that our obsession with blond hair and blue eyes has brought us horrible chaos in the world - one very notable, terrible event that happened in the 20th century needs no reminder...

First I will review the technical merits of the series, then opine on the subject matter - fyi if anyone wants to tune out - although no 'spoilers' will be tendered

Objectively this is an above average documentary - albeit not unbiased towards the subject nor subject matter, but it's definitely a forgivable and defendable position for the filmmaker to take - the anecdotal evidence was presented fairly, the testimony effective and the 'recreations' fair and, although there for more dramatic effect, definitely did not pander to 'entertainment value' which is good, right?

Now, bear in mind I'm an affluent single middle aged white man who has no children and have taken extreme care to have done so, sacrificing to my own detriment - I believe that overpopulation is THE root of all the horrifying challenges our planet faces and that OUR species has bestowed upon the world - that being said, I stand firmly with the parents (and children) , both with empathy, respect and appreciation - I watched this with a growing sense of abject terror for that is what this guy is - an absolute environmental terrorist - (which includes terrorizing the parents as well as likely, sadly, his biological offspring) I feel it's important to cite how 800 years ago Genghis Khan asserted his will on enough females that we now can trace back one half of one percent of all humans to him - this is significant - my fear is that via air travel and internet communications etc (today's technology and ' small world') we may see even larger numbers with these super donor donks - it's very problematic - for the obvious reasons as well as unforseen climate type issues - I want to stop here and now to make it clear if any of the offspring be reading this that THEY ARE NOT IN ANY WAY DIFFERENT THAN EVERYONE ELSE - and hold no responsibility or culpability nor should internalize these potential issues as any "fault of thier own" it is MY DEAREST WISH that they suffer nothing but live joy filled, successful lives where they thrive - so that being said, I will discontinue my rant and wish everyone but the donors in question, well.