How many kids does Our Father’s Dr. Donald Cline have?
Netflix’s documentary Our Father shines a light on the controversial matter concerning Indiana fertility doctor Donald Cline, and the many children he fathered by acting as a sperm donor without the parents’ consent.
We reveal how many kids Donald Cline has fathered, provide a brief recap of what transpired in the documentary, and see where viewers stand on the matter.
Directed by Lucie Jourdan, Our Father sees Jacoba Ballard lead the documentary as she uncovers the truth about her parents’ fertility doctor. The film uses a series of interviews and reenactments to recap the events that transpired.
Who is Dr. Donald Cline and where is he now?Dr. Donald Cline is an American fertility specialist from Indiana University School of Medicine who abused the trust of his patients by impregnating dozens of women with his own sperm without their knowledge or consent – known as “fertility fraud”.
Opening his clinic in 1979, infertility was a new specialty branch in the medical field, and when patients would visit his clinic, he would tell them that the sperm donors were medical residents.
Cline is currently living in Indianapolis, Indiana as a free man, confirmed by The Atlantic, and lives fairly close to some of the children he fathered. The doctor was only charged with obstruction of justice for lying to the attorney general’s office about inseminating patients with his sperm.
How many kids did Donald Cline father?There are currently 94 known half-siblings, as stated in the Netflix documentary, and that number is likely to increase as more people involved conduct DNA tests.
Ballard also explained in the documentary that she could be related to anyone she walks past:
“The majority of us live in, like, a 25-mile radius of each other. There’s also quite a few that live within minutes of Cline. I walk around and I could be related to anyone. I mean, it’s just common for me to pass people on the street, at work, wherever I may be, and, I mean, I’ll look at them and think, ‘Oh, the way you stand, the way you look, you could be related to me.”
Dr. Donald Cline is not the only fertility doctor to commit fertility fraud, as The Sun reported that Michigan doctor, Phillip Peven, has fathered hundreds of children using the same practice, in addition to 45 other known fertility specialists.
Twitter responds to Our FatherOne user shared how the documentary had affected them, making the severity of what happened very apparent:
Another user believes that Cline’s crime should be a part of the federal reform on sexual assault:
Lastly, this user was “sickened” by the knowledge that another 45 known infertility specialists have committed the same crime as Cline: