June 2 (UPI) — A Dutch court on Friday ruled that DNA tests can be performed on the late director of a shuttered Netherlands fertility clinic as part of a collective of paternity cases.
The court in Rotterdam said forensic experts may begin developing a DNA profile for Jan Karbaat, director of the former Medisch Centrum Bijdorp fertility clinic. The profile will be developed from Karbaat’s personal items.
The court’s ruling is part of continuing legal action from more than 20 people who believe Karbaat may be their biological father — having donated his own sperm at his clinic. Karbaat resisted efforts to develop his DNA for legal purposes before he died at age 89 in April, and his widow has also opposed the idea.
Netherlands law says every donor can father a maximum of 25 children. Karbaat is accused of well exceeding that limit in the years he ran the clinic. Dutch law also says all children born from donors have a right to their father’s identity once they turn 16.
Last week, DNA submitted by Karbaat’s son — which can accurately be used to test paternity — indicated that 18 people born through donations at the clinic are probably the late doctor’s.
The court on Friday said so far there isn’t enough proof to indicate that Karbaat used his own sperm to father the children, meaning the results of the doctor’s DNA analysis will be sealed until such evidence is produced.
Karbaat’s clinic was shut down in 2009 amid complaints, inspections and irregularities in paperwork.
