A big concern for parents is the risk of accidental incest, where half siblings both produced from Jonathan’s sperm might meet or procreate. The ramifications are huge, Eve says: “the biodiversity concern that could lead to accidental incest, the mental health component of navigating such large sibling pods for the donor conceived persons, and the false sense of security when selecting a donor profile.
“Most countries have guidelines that are just recommendations that cannot be enforced.”
Suzanne and her partner Natalie, who are based in the Netherlands, spoke with GLAMOUR to talk through their experience, how it has affected their son and parenting strategy and how they hope the documentary will affect change.
What does being on the documentary and telling your story mean to you?
Suzanne: Of course, there was the court case, but that is a civil court case in the Netherlands and it is aimed to help him stop. But it doesn’t solve the actual underlying issue. There is no universal law to prevent men like him doing this. It was really great to have an opportunity to address it by putting this on the agenda and moving it to the top of people’s minds. These practices are a global problem.
There’s so much misinformation out there about donors and regulation of the fertility industry – these are problems that we need to address. It is a problem worldwide. There is no law preventing it and the fertility industry is so strong, they have such a strong lobby, because it’s a billion dollar business. People are paying €2000+ per straw [of semen].
Are you able to tell me about your relationship with Jonathan in the beginning, and how he built your trust?
Natalie: He was perfectly normal. I first met him in 2010 and he was very helpful, very open… solid and well thought out, he had a good brain… Very nice and easygoing.
Suzanne: He comes across as super intelligent, a good conversation partner. He was friendly and had a very decent way of presenting himself. There’s not a lot of conversational partners I don’t get bored of – I didn’t get bored of him. Then [when we spoke to him about having a second child] we touched upon the number of children he had [at that point] and he said, ‘I have like 25 children now’, and we were shocked.
Natalie: [Now,] his word doesn’t mean nothing to us, because he’s continuously lying.
Suzanne: It’s hard to imagine what the reason is behind this. We’ll leave that up to the viewers, to look at his actions and judge based on that. He’s told a few stories about why he started donating, but it does not explain why it is happening at this scale. His statements running up to the documentary are very, very contradicting.
Natalie: In his mind, 99% of the women are against this documentary, and only 1% of the women wants this documentary to help them. But in fact, it’s the other way around. 99% want him to stop and want him to be to be accountable for what he did.