For decades, doctor Jan Karbaat was seen as a pioneer of assisted reproduction in the Netherlands – until it was discovered in 2017 that he used his own semen to inseminate several patients without consent.
The first suspicions about Karbaat practices arose when mothers began to notice obvious physical differences between their children and biological parents. Faced with these suspicions, several families resorted to genetic examinations, which revealed a pattern: many of the children shared the same biological father.
The confirmation came in 2019, through DNA tests authorized by the Dutch court, who proved that Karbaat was the biological father of at least 49 children conceived by artificial insemination in his clinic, located in Barendrecht, the Netherlands. These tests were only possible after the doctor’s death in early 2017, when police seized personal effects containing their genetic material. According to the authorities, Karbaat falsified documents and assured patients who would use carefully selected anonymous donors, but actually used their own material without the knowledge or consent of families.
Karbaat worked in the assisted reproduction sector at a time when the rules for artificial insemination in the Netherlands were uncommon, which, according to the authorities, facilitated the practice of criminal acts. After performing the procedure, the doctor even said that the patients of patients could meet the donor in the future.
In interviews for international vehicles, former patients reported that Karbaat performed at the time he worked in the sector as an empathic and innovative professional, even welcoming single women and homosexual couples-a posture seen at the time as progressive.
Despite attempts by the doctor’s family from preventing authorities from accessing their genetic material after his death, the Dutch justice determined that the right of children to discover their ancestry should prevail. Based on this decision, tests made in 2019 confirmed the biological connection between Karbaat and dozens of children born at their clinic.
