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Dutch families win right to test DNA of sperm bank doctor

A Dutch court has approved a request by families seeking DNA tests on the belongings of the late doctor of a fertility clinic accused of using his own sperm in dozens of cases.

Jan Karbaat is suspected of fathering about 60 children at the centre he ran in Bijdorp, near Rotterdam.

Tests will now be conducted on items seized from his home after his death in April, at the age of 89.

A lawyer for his family said there was no evidence to support the claims.

Jan Karbaat called himself "a pioneer in the field of fertilisation".


His clinic was closed in 2009 amid reports that he had allegedly falsified data, analyses and donor descriptions and exceeded the permitted number of six children per donor.

At a court hearing last month, a lawyer for the 23 parents and children said that the suspected cases included a client who had brown eyes when the sperm donor was supposedly blue-eyed and a male client who physically resembled the doctor.

The DNA profile will remain sealed until the families can show there is cause to believe he is their father, the BBC's Anna Holligan, who was at the district court in Rotterdam, reports.

Eventually, if the DNA profile matches, the children hope to sue the doctor, possibly on the grounds that they should not exist, our correspondent adds.

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