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ICSI in vitro fertilisation. Illustration of a human egg cell (ovum, centre) being fertilised with a sperm cell (spermatozoon) through the process of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
How Many Children Does Dr. Donald Cline From Netflix's Our Father Have?
By REMY MILLISKY
History - Science
High Pregnancy Rates
Dr. Donald Cline was known as one of the finest fertility doctors in 1970s Indiana. He was popular because he used fresh sperm instead of frozen, which seemed to result in higher pregnancy rates for his patients — but he didn’t tell them that the sperm was actually his own.
What Were Cline’s Motives?
The many children of Dr. Cline find it interesting to discuss his motives: was it a science experiment, a god complex, a fetish? Some think that he was just trying to be successful in his field, while others speculate that he was trying to start an Aryan cult (as many of the children have his blonde hair and blue eyes).
The First Seven Siblings
One of the Cline children, Jacoba Ballard, knew that she had been conceived via a sperm donor and used a DNA testing kit to find how many half-siblings she had in 2019. She was initially able to find seven, but the number has only grown higher since then, and she suspects that there are many more waiting to be found.
Half-Sibling Issues
Dr. Cline has at least 50 children confirmed via DNA tests, and most of them live within 25 miles of each other in Indiana. These half-siblings have often met each other at the same schools, yard sales, and sports events, and they have to wonder if some of them have unknowingly been in relationships with one another.
New Fertility Laws
As for Dr. Cline himself, his punishment was a $500 fine, a year of probation, and a permanent revoking of his medical license, though he had actually retired by then. In 2019, however, a new law was finally created to make fertility fraud illegal, giving his more than 50 children legal standing to sue their “father.”