A UK-man who fathered 15 children after he advertised his sperm on social media for lesbian women seeking to be mothers was found to have hidden his inheritable genetic condition.
James MacDougall suffered from a genetic condition which he passed on to the children he fathered via sperm donation.
A UK-court which heard the matter said that he will not be able to contact some of the children he fathered, news agencies reported.
The court also took the step to name and identify him so that people planning to use private sperm donors can be protected.
MacDougall was suffering from fragile-X syndrome, a genetic condition which can cause a range of developmental problems including learning difficulties and cognitive impairment.
The judge who presided over the case, Justice Lieven, said that MacDougall was ‘a complex person’ and suffered from learning difficulties and also was on the autistic spectrum.
The children MacDougall fathered are aged between nearly four and a few months old, the Guardian reported.
The report by the Guardian also found out that doctors were concerned about a child fathered by him citing that the child was still not verbal at the age of three and was ‘behaviourally challenging’.
The judge also said that MacDougall showed fundamental irresponsibility by not being upfront about his condition while advertising his sperm. Due to his condition, he was stopped from being a sperm donor through a regulated clinic.
“I equally have no confidence in him fully explaining to any woman the true implications of his fragile-X syndrome. There is therefore a very specific benefit in him being named in the hope that women will look him up on the internet and see this judgment,” Lieven said, justifying her decision to name him.
Though in at least two of the legal agreements signed by the mothers, there was mention of the fragile-X, it was found out that there was no explanation of the consequences of fragile-X.
“(It was a) closely spaced three-page document in highly legalistic language which is difficult to read even for a lawyer. Failure to take responsibility for his own condition and to have any apparent concern for the long-term impact both on the mothers and potentially the children, is a factor in concluding that [he] should not be given parental responsibility for the children,” the judge further added.
(with inputs from the BBC and The Guardian)
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