It was not known if he had fathered more children, the hospital said (Representation)
The Hague:
A deceased gynecologist has fathered at least 17 children with women believed to receive sperm from anonymous donors, a Dutch hospital said on Tuesday in the latest IVF scandal to hit the country.
Jan Wildschut worked from 1981 to 1993 in the fertility clinic of the former Sophia Hospital, now called Isala Hospital in the city of Zwolle, in the eastern Netherlands.
“A total of 17 donor children are currently known, in addition to the legal children of this former gynecologist,” Isala said in a statement, calling Wildschut’s actions “morally unacceptable”.
At the time, he was involved in the hospital’s artificial insemination program with donor sperm, called KID in Dutch. It is not known if he fathered more children, the hospital said.
Learning the news in 2019, the hospital decided to make it public in collaboration with the doctor’s family and the donor children to “contribute to greater transparency” on the issue of sperm donation.
De Stentor newspaper said the case was first discovered when a child donor discovered a DNA match via a commercial database with a niece of Wildschut, who died in 2009.
“We never suspected that he could have been the donor,” a relative who wished to remain anonymous told the newspaper.
Wildschut gave a “friendly, engaged and honest impression,” the parent said.
The Dutch Health and Youth Inspectorate refused to open an investigation because “this case took place at a time when there were no laws or regulations governing fertility treatments,” said the ‘hospital.
Last year, the Netherlands was rocked by yet another scandal after it emerged that another Dutch doctor in Rotterdam had fathered at least 49 children while inseminating women who sought treatment.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
