Der Mann mit 1000 Kindern

This is the story of a man that is obsessed with being a father to as many babies as possible. Either by donor and in some cases actual sex. Not only was he registered to 11 clinics in his country, but he travelled all over the world donating. Not only that, but he also donates privately through a website. There are so many siblings in his home country it will be a miracle that some wouldn't meet and fall in love with each other. The documentary follows several parents that were duped by this man who by clinic rules should only donate to 5 different families. What makes it even scarier is the whole community of men that are doing this as well. There's no strict rules in place so these families are trying to change things in an industry that needs way more legislation. It kept my interest and frankly I felt scared for these children, especially the ones that live so close to each other. Things are definitely going to be interesting in the future and not in a good way.

Every time I watch a Netflix docuseries with my mouth slack-jawed and eyes widened, I think it has to be the most outrageous thing I've seen, and then a few months later, it's a whole other story of people being awful. This time around, it's a Dutch man who is a serial sperm donor and has anywhere from 600 to 3,000 kids (!). The series is only three episodes, insane from beginning to end, and also kind of icky, with women seeking him out because he had long blond hair, blue eyes, and is (supposedly) Nordic and handsome. I thought he was gross with a serious god-complex, and completely dismissive of the possibility of consanguinity with so many offspring running around. I blame all this hyper-natalism on Elon Musk and other white fanboys, one of whom said they were donating in Kenya so they could "bleach Africa white". Aaargh.

First I will review the technical merits of the series, then opine on the subject matter - fyi if anyone wants to tune out - although no 'spoilers' will be tendered

Objectively this is an above average documentary - albeit not unbiased towards the subject nor subject matter, but it's definitely a forgivable and defendable position for the filmmaker to take - the anecdotal evidence was presented fairly, the testimony effective and the 'recreations' fair and, although there for more dramatic effect, definitely did not pander to 'entertainment value' which is good, right?

Now, bear in mind I'm an affluent single middle aged white man who has no children and have taken extreme care to have done so, sacrificing to my own detriment - I believe that overpopulation is THE root of all the horrifying challenges our planet faces and that OUR species has bestowed upon the world - that being said, I stand firmly with the parents (and children) , both with empathy, respect and appreciation - I watched this with a growing sense of abject terror for that is what this guy is - an absolute environmental terrorist - (which includes terrorizing the parents as well as likely, sadly, his biological offspring) I feel it's important to cite how 800 years ago Genghis Khan asserted his will on enough females that we now can trace back one half of one percent of all humans to him - this is significant - my fear is that via air travel and internet communications etc (today's technology and ' small world') we may see even larger numbers with these super donor donks - it's very problematic - for the obvious reasons as well as unforseen climate type issues - I want to stop here and now to make it clear if any of the offspring be reading this that THEY ARE NOT IN ANY WAY DIFFERENT THAN EVERYONE ELSE - and hold no responsibility or culpability nor should internalize these potential issues as any "fault of thier own" it is MY DEAREST WISH that they suffer nothing but live joy filled, successful lives where they thrive - so that being said, I will discontinue my rant and wish everyone but the donors in question, well.

I do feel for the couples who went to the legitimate donor clinics and ended up with this psycho who obviously wants to leave his genetic legacy to the world. I also feel sorry for the thousand children who are his progeny, particularly the ones whose mothers just randomly decided that it would be a good idea to go and procreate with a total stranger, because he had nice blond curls. The IQs of these poor kids will probably prove to be quite the number...And maybe they did it because it was free?

I have absolutely no sympathy for the people who reached out to this random stranger and accepted his word that he had only fathered three or four children, oh no, maybe 25 children because now he was helping with second and third offspring for the couples that were already successful and had one child, so the lies just changed. No vetting on their part of his medical history (only what he told them), actually agreeing to having sex with him, so it would "work better" (I think one woman agreed to that I'm just so disgusted I have no words), waiting at the mall for the "sample"; commenting on how gross that is, because he is obtaining the sample in a public bathroom at the mall, but taking the sample home anyway...I'm sorry, you are trying to conceive with a complete stranger, and you want a child so badly that you don't care to look into his background.

Now your child has 50% of this narcissist's DNA. Good luck to you and to your poor children.

This man must be permanently stopped, anywhere in the world. And the donor system must be better regulated since he isn't, and won't be, the only one.

At the risk of sounding like victim blaming, however, sometimes some people can be a little shallow with looks - the most cliché form of beauty propagated endlessly by media - and they can be easily duped by cheap compliments. You could hear them talking how they might feel it's wrong or even disgusting at times, yet they went through with it because they're charmed. After learning what's transpired and that there could be intentional mixed-ups, two of the parents were even relieved that both their children got their DNAs from Mr. B&B whom they've selected from an online menu. I'm sure for them the decision to have a baby was made with utmost gravity, but the way some of them went about it - similar to that of marketplace online shopping - suggests otherwise.

The irony is that we might repeatedly teach our kids "it's the inside that counts," yet when we want to conceive, we might be obsessed with a certain type of beauty. This has to stop. After all, this is NOT the first time that our obsession with blond hair and blue eyes has brought us horrible chaos in the world - one very notable, terrible event that happened in the 20th century needs no reminder...