According to the Netflix documentary, it is estimated that this doctor has 94 biological children.
Netflix’s latest addition to its catalog true crime‘Our father‘, continues the recent avalanche on the platform of variations of this genre that, however, are not murders, with recent releases such as ‘The Varsity Blues plot: Scandal at the university in the USA’, ‘The Tinder swindler’ and ‘ You can’t trust anyone: On the hunt for the king of cryptocurrency’. Murderers are stories of yesterday: this year stories featuring swindlers are taking over.
‘Our Father’ recounts the case of an Indianapolis doctor named Donald Cline, who, over several years, repeatedly used his own sperm to impregnate dozens of women seeking fertility treatment who thought the sperm came from anonymous donors. While never prosecuted as a crime, victims and clinicians consider such actions to amount to malpractice, fraud, and sexual assault. Cline himself, whose religious convictions and affiliations, the victims believe, border on eugenics, was not interviewed for the documentary, an absence that did not help understand his motivations for those familiar with the story. Still, the impact on those affected by Cline’s hoax remains revealing. As one victim’s daughter explained during an interview for the documentary: “It’s disgusting to sit there and lie in bed at night and wonder if the person who created you is a racist bigot and used my mother as a pawn. And she did it over and over and over again.”
Cline opened her clinic in 1979, when infertility practice was still a new and relatively unregulated medical specialty.. Some doctors told patients not to tell the children for fear of psychological harm, and a 1977 survey showed that more than half of infertility doctors kept no records, meaning that the identity of donors was often unknown.
At first, Cline claimed that she was using medical residents as donors and that she would use each donor for only three successful pregnancies. According to DNA data collected through 23andMe, Cline used a donor at least eight times, resulting in eight biological siblings born between 1979 and 1986. One of these siblings, Jacoba Ballard, began to unravel the deception when she set out to find her half-siblings.. She knew since she was 10 years old that she was the daughter of a donor. As she began to connect with her siblings, she realized that Cline had also treated her mothers. Then the brothers took DNA tests. They immediately suspected that the donor was not a resident doctor, but Cline.
According to the victims and state prosecutorsCline informed some mothers that she was using their husbands’ sperm, causing them to discovery of Cline’s actions was especially damaging to families who believed that their son was their own biological offspringand for those children who believed that their father was their biological father.
As more people began using home DNA tests, the connections to Ballard grew. The woman began contacting each of them. Ballard and others filed a complaint against Cline with the Indiana attorney general, and eventually investigators questioned Cline, who denied using her own sperm in treating patients. The documentary points out that there is no federal law that prohibits the illicit insemination of donors. In addition to Cline, the documentary claims, there are 44 other doctors who have used their own sperm to impregnate their patients; they, too, were discovered through home DNA testing.
How many children does Donald Cline have?
At the end of the documentary, we are told that there are currently 94 boys and girls biologically related to Cline. Several of the “Cline brothers” interviewed for the documentary believe there are more brothers left uncounted.
Where is Donald Cline now?
Although Cline could not be charged with a crime related to his medical practice, was charged with two felony counts of obstruction of justice, as a result of lies he told investigators when asked if he had used his own sperm on his patients.
Cline’s case did not go to trial, and in December 2017, he pleaded guilty. Cline’s 365-day jail sentence was suspended. He gave up his medical license, even though it had expired earlier that year anyway.
Cline, now 80, is retired from medical practice.. It’s unclear if she still lives in the Indianapolis area, where at least a dozen of her biological children still reside.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
