The DNA of a former director of a sperm bank will be analyzed after his death. His personal belongings were seized by the courts. He would have fathered 60 children.
The trial which is taking place in the Netherlands is extraordinary in more than one way. On June 2, the Dutch justice authorized the DNA sampling of Jan Karbaat, suspected of having inseminated twenty women with his own sperm.
The procedure promises to be delicate. The former director of a sperm bank near Rotterdam died last April at the age of 89.
Prohibition of taking
In exceptional situation, exceptional measures. 23 people are trying to defend the same case in court. When he was alive, Jan Karbaat would have substituted his sperm for that chosen by the couples, before inseminating the women. He would therefore be the biological father of 60 children.
But Jan Karbaat decided to take his secret to the grave. He confessed to one of his patients having inseminated several women with his own sperm. But he has always refused to deliver his DNA to justice. In the absence of this element, it is difficult to prove that he is really guilty of this deception.
It will therefore be post-mortem that justice will carry out the analysis. Dr Karbaat had obviously foreseen this eventuality: in his will, he prohibited taking DNA from himself.
Toothbrushes Seized
Under these conditions, it is out of the question to exhume the body. However, justice is not devoid of alternatives. Because the legitimate son of Jan Karbaat has decided to cooperate and has submitted to comparative DNA analyzes. On May 2, in addition to these examinations, objects were seized from the home of the deceased.
It will therefore be possible to collect his DNA on a toothbrush, or other personal effects. But the public affair ends there: the test results cannot be made public in the Netherlands. In addition, no DNA comparison can be made with other children resulting from IVF.
The mystery will therefore remain on the extent of the filiation of this serial inseminator. A first estimate was delivered by the analysis of 19 people. A laboratory was able to establish with certainty a genetic link of half-brothers and half-sisters between all.
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