Fertility doctor ‘used his own sperm to secretly father 49 children’

A fertility doctor at the centre of an IVF scandal in the Netherlands secretly fathered at least 49 children, it has been claimed.

Jan Karbaat, who died in 2017, is accused of using his own sperm instead of sperm from a chosen donor to inseminate women at his Rotterdam clinic.

An organisation representing parents and children born through IVF at his now-closed clinic said DNA tests ‘showed that 49 children in the case are direct descendants of the late Karbaat.’

‘The results confirm serious suspicions that Karbaat used his own sperm at his clinic,’ Defence for Children added.

The controversial case became public after a Dutch court ruled in February that the results of Karbaat’s DNA test should be made available to parents and children to conduct their own comparisons.

Before his death, aged 89, Karbaat reportedly admitted to having fathered about 60 children in his time at the discredited clinic which closed in 2009 amid reports of irregularities.

Karbaat later also admitted to mixing sperm from various donors and issuing fraudulent donor documentation, according to Dutch reports.

The group of suspected ‘Karbaat children’ dragged his family to court to force them to release Karbaat’s DNA profile, which was kept locked in a safe.

The Karbaat family’s lawyers had argued that their clients’ right to privacy had to be respected.

‘However, with the judges agreeing to the paternity test, the judge placed the children’s rights above those of Karbaat and his family,’ Defence for Children advisor Iara de Witte said.

‘Now, after years of uncertainty the plaintiffs can finally close a chapter and start processing the fact that they are one of Karbaat’s many descendants,’ De Witte said.

One of the children, Eric Lever, recently told the NRC newspaper he was ‘not angry with Karbaat.’

‘I don’t get the feeling that he cheated my mother,’ he told the paper.

‘She really wanted a child and could not have one with my parental father,’ he said.

The Defence for Children added it was likely that Karbaat fathered even more donor children than the 49 revealed on Friday.

‘Sperm belonging to the late doctor was also distributed to other clinics,’ they added.

The organisation has appealed to anybody who may suspect that Karbaat was their donor father to apply to a Dutch database for DNA matching.