Feb. 2 (UPI) — A doctor in the Netherlands fathered 21 children — and possibly more — over a span of 13 years by using his own sperm for prospective mothers who’d come to him for fertility treatment, Dutch investigators have found.
The gynecologist, Dr. Jos Beek, worked at the Elisabeth Hospital in the city of Leiderdorp between 1973 and 1986. He died in 2019.
The discovery was made by Fiom, a Dutch company that helps people born from anonymous donors trace their biological heritage.
Investigators found that the women in question gave birth to children who all shared the same father. The patients were seeking fertility treatment with sperm from anonymous donors.
“We are very shocked by this,” said Peter Jue, a member of the hospital’s board of directors, according to The Guardian. “This, of course, has a significant impact on the parents and children involved.
“We recognize the situation they have found themselves 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.”
Jue said that it’s possible that Beek could have fathered dozens more children. The hospital has set up a hotline and is asking Beek’s former female patients for information.
Beek becomes the third Dutch gynecologist known to use his own sperm in treatment.
In 2020, similar DNA testing showed that Dr. Jan Wildschut fathered 17 children with women who were seeking anonymous donors — and in 2019, Dr. Jan Karbaat was found to have used his own sperm to father 49 children.
