Dutch gynaecologist fathered over 20 children unlawfully

It all started with a statement from the Alrijne hospital in Leiden and Leiderdorp. In it, the hospital said that 21 persons approached the hospital saying DNA testing concluded that they have the same father: the now-deceased gynaecologist Jos Beek. Beek was a doctor in a hospital that is currently part of Alrijne.

The hospital suspects this doctor to have donated his sperm and used it to inseminate mothers expecting anonymous sperm. According to Alrijne, the children and their parents were unaware of this. The fertility trajectories ran globally from the 1970s to the mid-1980s.

“We are very shocked by this,” said Peter Jue of the board of directors of Alrijne according to Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad. “Of course, something like this has a major impact on the parents and children involved. We recognise the situation they have ended up in and want to do as much as possible to get information on the table. The way this doctor acted at the time is unacceptable.”

Destroyed

The gynaecologist stopped fertility treatments in 1986 and worked at the Alrijne care group until 1998. It is not known how many patients the gynaecologist in Leiderdorp has treated. “All files have been destroyed,” the hospital said. It cannot be ruled out that Beek fathered more children. If that is the case or anyone suspects this, Alrijne hopes that the children and intended parents in question will report themselves through an emergency phone number.

According to Alrijne, up to several dozens of people reported themselves through that number on the first day. The hospital can say little about people’s questions because many of them still have to be called back, regional broadcaster Omroep West reports.

Similar case

It is not the first time a similar case happened in the Netherlands. Last week, the Dutch Isala hospital in Zwolle called on former patients of gynaecologist Jan Wildschut to report themselves. As a doctor at the former Sophia Hospital, the predecessor of Isala, Wildschut fathered at least 47 children at the end of the last century with his sperm instead of that of donors. The Dutch gynaecologist Jan Karbaat fathered at least 68 children unlawfully in the 1980s as well.

Poor regulation

Sperm donation became a thriving business, as fertility clinics sought to meet the demand of parents eager to get children.

As an industry, however, it is poorly regulated. In Germany, a sperm-clinic donor may not produce more than 15 children; in the United Kingdom, the cap is ten families of unlimited children. In the Netherlands, Dutch law prohibits donating anonymously. Nonbinding guidelines limit clinic donors to 25 children and from donating at more than one clinic in the country. This writes the New York Times.

According to the American newspaper, regulation is even more scarce internationally. “There is little to stop a sperm donor from donating at clinics in countries other than his own, or at global agencies like Cryos International, the world’s biggest sperm clinic, in Denmark, which ships semen to more than 100 countries.”