Father of 28 kids and ethicist debate in CNE podcast: reproduction versus procreation

In the new CNE podcast, Menno Hofman shares a bit of his personal journey. Before he met his present wife, whom he got to know through a dating site, he told her that he was a sperm donor. Later, he told her that he was himself donor-conceived, too.

Hofman tells in the CNE podcast that his mother was “in tears” when she told the 17-year-old Menno that his father was not biologically related. His father could not handle this situation rationally either. In the podcast, he shares his ideas about secrecy and anonymity with podcast host Evert van Vlastuin.

Hofman is a Christian and theologian who also conducts church services. He is motivated by a desire to help others. He has three children at home and estimates he has “roughly 25” donor-conceived children he may never meet.

In the same episode, the ethicist Prof. Henk Jochemsen challenges Hofman’s view, arguing that true fatherhood is inseparable from marriage, responsibility, and family life. From this perspective, it is also a language issue: Is getting children a form of reproduction, or procreation?

The conversation goes into the variations in the family model in Biblical times. For Hofman, polygamy and the levirate marriage are reasons to allow for creativity in the present times, too.

Jochemsen asks Hofman whether he could oversee the fact that he produced 25 children he does not know and for whom he cannot take responsibility. Although statistically there is little risk for inbreeding, Jochemsen says he has “seen stories” about this.

For Hofman, this underlines the value of openness towards donor children.