This short Dutch film is about Dr. Jan Karbaat, a well respected and prolific fertility doctor with a dark secret. Instead of donor sperm, he used his own and fathered dozens of children throughout Europe. This film talks about this through interviews with two women who bore these children and two children who were fathered by Karbaat (whether they were these two women's kids isn't clear).
The film shows two very depressed and somewhat angry mothers and two kids who have VERY mixed feelings about this. Okay...but if this was a serious problem with lots of victims, I sure would love to know more about them and how it affects them. At the very end of the film, they showed a room filled with people who it implies are parents and kids affected by Dr. Karbaat. If they are, why weren't any of them interviewed? And, if they weren't...well, that's pretty misleading. Overall, it's a good film...but an incomplete one.
By the way, if you think this was an isolated case, after a brief search, I found two in the States who were doctors using their own sperm to inseminate hundreds of women (Drs. Cline and Jacobson)....and I can only assume there are probably others. This sort of thing doesn't surprise me, as my wife and I went through infertility treatment and the ethics of the doctor were unquestionably poor...using donor sperm from folks who never got tested for HIV and other serious illnesses! Fortunately, without their help we were able to have kids....but we were appalled at the doctor's cavalier attitude as he seemed far more interested in good statistics than good medical ethics.
The film shows two very depressed and somewhat angry mothers and two kids who have VERY mixed feelings about this. Okay...but if this was a serious problem with lots of victims, I sure would love to know more about them and how it affects them. At the very end of the film, they showed a room filled with people who it implies are parents and kids affected by Dr. Karbaat. If they are, why weren't any of them interviewed? And, if they weren't...well, that's pretty misleading. Overall, it's a good film...but an incomplete one.
By the way, if you think this was an isolated case, after a brief search, I found two in the States who were doctors using their own sperm to inseminate hundreds of women (Drs. Cline and Jacobson)....and I can only assume there are probably others. This sort of thing doesn't surprise me, as my wife and I went through infertility treatment and the ethics of the doctor were unquestionably poor...using donor sperm from folks who never got tested for HIV and other serious illnesses! Fortunately, without their help we were able to have kids....but we were appalled at the doctor's cavalier attitude as he seemed far more interested in good statistics than good medical ethics.
