It reads: "As of this production, there are currently 94 Cline siblings and counting". Newsweek has everything you need to know. How many Cline siblings are there now 2022? NetflixIndiana fertility specialist Dr. Donald Cline has never served a day in prison. It brings awareness on this huge platform," Jacoba says of the documentary. Coolio funeral, burial service, pictures, date, time, venue. Cline was released on his own recognizance. Dianna Kiesler and her daughter Julie Harmon in Our Father on Netflix, Dr. Donald Cline is Julie Harmon's biological father. The simple answer is no, it is not legal to record your spouse unless that person consents to being recorded. Some people online have said hes dead, Ballard told the publication. You just relive this nightmare, every single time, she said. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. However, today there is still no federal law that makes Clines' acts a criminal offense. They didn't hide it from her, and in 2019, Ballard decided to see if she had other siblings from the same sperm donor. Clive Jones claims to have fathered 129 children with nine more on the way. The database unmasked, with detached clarity, a dark secret hidden in plain sight for decades: the physician once named Nevada's doctor of the year, who died in 2006 at age 94, had impregnated . Its safe to say that Cline was far from being in the best shape and its a chilling fact that stays with you after watching. investigating complaints from two of the now-adult children against him. Cline said he used his own sperm whenever he didnt The doctor first tried to deny that he was the anonymous sperm donor for many of his patients. They encouraged parents never to tell their children that they were conceived by a sperm donor. They have even organised an annual picnic, held over Fathers Day weekend. Court Number. In an interview with The Guardian the director of Our Father, Lucie Jourdan, as well as Ballard say Cline is still alive. No, Donald Cline had his license revoked by the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana following his felony conviction in 2018. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine but the one-year jail sentence against him was surprisingly suspended, due to the numerous letters the court . FIR Number. Where will be Ricou Browning buried? The doctor also told them that all his records were shredded and that he did not recall any additional details, according to the complaint. Donors with contact are open to having their partners and children know their donor-conceived offspring. Then, in 2018, he surrendered his medical license to the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, according to IndyStar. He was having two kids with his wife Susie and their name are Donna and Doug. The board also voted to prevent Cline from ever applying to have his license reinstated in the future. ), "Honestly, I'm kind of thankful for it. Mr. White and Ms. Ballard now both continually check websites like 23andMe to see if any new half siblings will emerge. Now, Dr. Clines former patients and their children are asking enormously consequential questions: How many women did he deceive? Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. "We just had Mother's Day last weekend, so I'm sure that even just as a result of that, we'll find another sibling or two. I really thought I was going to die." In 2014, when she was 35 years old, Jacoba took a 23AndMe DNA test and when her results came back as having seven half-siblings, she decided to investigate further. The doctor in question, Donald Cline, secretly used his own sperm on unconsenting clients. From the 1970s through the 1990s, Donald Cline was a renowned fertility specialist in Indiana. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. "I'm doing better than last year. (Alyssa Schukar) By the 1970s, hundreds of doctors were performing . The Netflix doc sheds a light on fertility doctor Donald Cline's implanting of his own sperm in his patients without their consent for over a decade. A retired math teacher from the UK says he is the worlds most prolific sperm donor. The client's husbands would provide sperm for the insemination procedure, but Dr. Donald Cline would discard it and replace it with his own to impregnate their wives. Her mother, Deborah Pierce, was artificially inseminated by Dr. Donald Cline, and Ballard thought there might be one or two other people conceived from the same donor, according to The Atlantic and ABC30 News.She found her first sibling on an online forum for donor-conceived children, where she connected . Is Dr Donald Cline still a doctor? through a private personal genomics company and found that she was related to One person, Jacoba Ballard, took the initiative to find out how many siblings she really had. 2023 Ghanafuo.com & DM Network. D. Ramaley of He settled in Indiana with his wife Audrey and their sons, Donna and Doug. He said he had given his own sperm to several patients, according to court papers. Cline has never given a reason to explain why he took the actions he did, but some of the children have their own theories ranging from his potential link to Quiverfull, a conservative strain of Evangelical Christianity whose followers believe large families are a direct blessing from God, to racist views. The doctors actions were revealed by one of his children, Jacoba Ballard. At least 50 fertility doctors in the United States have been accused in recent years of donating sperm after commercial DNA testing became more widespread. And Our Father reveals that Cline fathered 94 children with his patients at the time of filming. In December, Dr. Cline pleaded guilty to two felony obstruction of justice charges, acknowledging that he lied to state investigators when denying the accusations that he used his own sperm. Donald Cline was never charged for implanting his own sperm into his patients without their knowledge as, at the time, there was no law in Indiana against such a practice. Despite Susie, Donald Clines wife, not being a major part of the Netflix documentary, it is revealed that she also received treatment from her husband at the fertility clinic. Another viewer had their say on how the documentary shines an important light on the judicial system: The Netflix film Our Father speaks volumes at how the system doesnt care about women. But with the introduction of DNA technology, it was quite literally impossible for him to deny how many children he had truly created. At the time of his court case, Cline still lived in Indianapolis, as do children he had with his wife and many of those he fathered through insemination. Act. He had an estimated 94 children. At the end of the documentary, we're told there are currently 94 children biologically related to Cline. Clines attorney, Tracy Betz, released a statement saying he "It doesn't feel like a brand new spotlight on this," Heather adds, "but it's certainly bigger and brighter now.". Many of Cline's biological "children" including Jacoba Ballard reached out to . In the '70s and '80s, Donald Cline fathered more than 50 children by using his own sperm in his patients. Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the Netflix release, Jacoba Ballard revealed a new sibling had been identified via 23AndMe. In Our Father, Jacoba and several of her half-siblings recount their experience of shock, anger, their ultimate disbelief in finding out the truth, and the search for justice. Dr. Donald Cline inseminated dozens of women with his own sperm without their knowledge or consent during the 1970s and 1980s. Clive Jones claims to have fathered 129 children with nine more on the way. Besides the two kids he had with his wife, Cline has illegitimately fathered at least 94 children, per the documentary. Cline is believed to have fathered 94 children and potentially, many more, . Im confused. At the end, its revealed that there are at least 94 Cline siblings. Netflix documentary Our Father revolves around former Indianapolis-based fertility specialist Dr. Donald Cline and the reported 94 children he fathered by inseminating their mothers with his . On May 11, 2022, Netflix released a documentary titled Our Father that retells Donald's misdeeds. Prosecutors charged Cline with obstruction of justice, instead. Cline continued to practice medicine until 2009, when he officially retired. Cline suddenly had no excuse for the many children that looked like him (via The Atlantic). Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Cline's daughter Jacoba Ballard is the central figure in Netflix's Our Father. John is a devoted husband and father of two. It was a 23andMe test taken by Jacoba Ballard in 2014 that eventually revealed the horror story she shared with a now estimated 90 half-siblings: an Indiana fertility doctor named Donald Cline had . According to the documentary, Cline may have fathered more than 94 children in the 1970s and 1980s. The Our Father documentary also showed how devastating it is to break the news to another unaware sibling. She appears alongside Julie Harmon (sibling 14), Matt White (17), Heather Woock (22), Lisa Shepherd-Stidham (33), Jason Hyatt (48), Carrie Foster (53), and Alison Kramer (61). In 2017, Cline was convicted on two felony counts for obstructing the state attorney general's investigation into the matter. Jacoba Ballard's earnest quest to find her half-siblings turned into . According to Netflix, Cline inseminated at least 50 people with his own sperm without their consent, and he has at least 50 children, proven by DNA tests. Four of the half-siblings filed a complaint about Clines actions to Indianas attorney general, leading to a criminal investigation. A Decades-Old Doctor's Secret Leads to New Fertility-Fraud Law. Aside from the Our Father documentary, Donald's whereabouts are unaccounted for in the media. She and her siblings also work closely with organizations like Right to Know, who fight for fertility fraud laws. had told his patients they were receiving sperm from medical or dental As a result, several couples dealing with fertility issues . We actually had a new sibling pop up the day the trailer dropped, she told The Guardian, regarding Netflixs new documentary Our Father, now streaming, which outlines the entire shocking tale. In a recording of a conversation between investigators and Cline which plays out in Our Father, Cline can be heard stating there was no "sexual connotation" to his actions and he did not use his own semen in a "blas" way. When Indiana fertility doctor Dr. Donald Cline was charged with obstruction of justice in the fall of 2016, . CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV reports that, according to court records, Cline said healso felt that he was helping women because they really wanted a baby.. Many physicians donated sperm as medical students in the 1960s and 1970s, and some observers believe that a number of doctors may have gone on to use their own sperm to treat infertility when they were trying to build a reputation for themselves as successful fertility doctors. While pleading guilty to the two counts of obstruction of justice, he admitted to his non-consensual insemination of his clients. Dr. Cline later acknowledged that he did use his sperm. Many of Cline's biological "children" including Jacoba Ballard reached out to their half-siblings and put pressure on the local media and authorities for accountability in the case. Ballard's parents used sperm donation to become pregnant. If that figure was not haunting enough, at the end of Our Father on Netflix, a title card suggests this figure could be set to rise. Press Esc to cancel. He believed all of the records of the patients he inseminated were long gone, but he apparently stopped the practice of using his own sperm in the late 1980s as infertility science evolved. In 2014, Indianapolis resident Jacoba Ballard wondered if she had any unknown siblings. How many biological children did Dr. Donald Cline have? Now, Heather works with Jacoba on raising awareness around fertility fraud laws. The trailer for Our Father dropped on in mid-April 2022. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Like us on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/TheSunUSand follow us from our main Twitter account at@TheSunUS, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Since his own DNA results connected him to Cline, Matt and his mother Liz have fought tirelessly to get fertility fraud laws on legislative dockets across the U.S. .css-26w0xw{display:block;font-family:NationalBold,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-26w0xw:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-26w0xw{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-26w0xw{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-26w0xw{font-size:1.28598rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-26w0xw{font-size:1.575rem;line-height:1.1;margin-bottom:-0.5rem;}}How To Avoid Unexpected Health Bills, Where Is Elizabeth Holmes Now? used his own sperm at least 50 times instead of donated sperm that his patients As for Dr. Donald Cline, his punishment was a $500 fine, one year's probation, and his medical license was permanently revoked (via Daily Mail). Lastly, this user believes the 94 children did not get the justice they deserved as Clines patients: I just watched Our Father in Netflix and my blood boils knowing the victims who happen to be, unfortunately, his 94 children (and counting), and plenty innocent women, didn't get the justice they so well deserve. Donald Cline has two children from his marriage with Audrey and reportedly 94 other children from insemination. Cause Lists. 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Netflix's upcoming documentary, Our Father, will pull the curtain back on this man, Dr. Donald Cline, and the heartache and damage he left in his wake. Village Name. Women's Health may earn commission from the links on this page, but we only feature products we believe in. When treating his female patients, Cline told them the sperm donors were medical residents (which are temporary positions), using each donor for only three pregnancies. Per The Atlantic, the Cline half-siblings now have to face the troubling realities of the situation: What if they accidentally dated their own half-sibling? Dr. Donald Cline used to be known as one of the finest fertility doctors in Indiana (via The Atlantic). Donald Cline WTTV-TV To couples at the end of their ropes who wanted children but could not conceive them for medical reasons, Dr. Donald Cline was a savior of sorts, offering to match the women with sperm from anonymous men resembling their partners. "We find new siblings regularly, especially after major holidays because DNA testing kits are big gifts," Heather Woock, one of Cline's children, tells Women's Health. The most notorious fertility doctor to secretly use . How can I check my court case status in Maharashtra? They said in the complaint that, in researching their origins, they had discovered through a genetic testing website that they were half siblings, and had all been conceived using sperm from Dr. Clines office. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. Many live in the same town, go to the same places, and have children that attend school together. He would then use these tampered donations to inseminate his clients. "We just had Mother's Day last weekend, so I'm sure that even just as a result of that, we'll find another sibling or two.". By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students. The fertility doctor inseminated lots of women with his own sperm without their knowledge or consent. Ms. Ballard said the lack of more serious charges was disheartening.. Sulley Muntari, Agyeman Badu, Asamoah Gyan, others visit Christian Atsus family home, VIDEO: Government will be fully involved in providing Christian Atsu a befitting burial Dr. Bawumia, Christian Atsus mortal remains arrive in Ghana via Turkish Airlines, Maybe I created enemies along the line Kofi Amoabeng on UT Banks collapse, Christian Atsu was one of Ghanas finest personnel Akufo-Addo, This is some food chain story Archipalago shamed for chasing clout with Christian Atsus death. Daily Mail reports that this complicates relationships for Cline's many, many children. I want laws changed, I want medical professionals to be held accountable, Ms. Ballard said. Through a lawyer, Dr. Cline surrendered his medical license to the state last week, and a state medical board barred him from ever getting a license again. Dr Donald Cline, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist, has fathered at least 48 kids without their mother's knowing. Netflix's new documentary exposes the shocking plot that Dr Donald Cline implemented in the late 70s and 80s - but where is he now? In 2014, Jacoba uncovered the truth about Donald when she looked further into her ancestry. The story of the Indianapolis doctor, Donald L. Cline, who inseminated his patients with his own sperm, is coming to Netflix on May 11. However, he quickly realized that his passion was for working with individuals going through the difficult process of divorce. The most notorious fertility doctor to secretly use his own Heather tells Women's Health. If the cut-off for the average sperm donor is 25 live births, what are the consequences in a small town, when that number is more than doubled(via the American Society for Reproductive Medicine)? Between 1972 and 1988, fertility doctor Donald Cline inseminated his patients with his own sperm without their knowledge or consent, leading to the births of many children. at least eight other people in its database, the affidavit said. Advocate Name. Ms. Ballard said she also reported the half siblings findings to local law enforcement, and while the Marion County Prosecutors Office in Indianapolis ended up charging Dr. Cline for misleading investigators, Ms. Ballard was told there is no law in Indiana that would criminalize Dr. Cline using his own sperm to inseminate patients. Dr. Donald Cline was not convicted with fraud or medical malpractice at the time he stood trial because, in the eyes of the law, he had done nothing illegal. One of the adult children took a saliva-based DNA test Donald Cline, an Indiana fertility doctor who used his own sperm to artificially inseminate dozens of patients without their consent, has been confirmed to be the father to at least 48 children . She was treated at Cline's office between 1981-1982, but she didn't find out what he had done until the 2010s (via The Atlantic). (Since the documentary, Indiana and a few other states have finally passed laws making fertility fraud a crime. revamp thrums with sexual tension, trusted fertility doctor and church elder Donald Cline, If PopMaster will continue on BBC Radio 2 after Ken Bruce leaves, Sophie Rundle: Motherhood has made me too tired to people-please', Date of Ken Bruce's final day on Radio 2 and why he's leaving for Greatest Hits early, BBC bids to smooth over Ken Bruce exit row ahead of DJ's thorny last week at Radio 2, When presenter Steve Allen left LBC and his statement following immediate exit, Phew! Blame the Federal Reserve. A new law makes such . Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site! At the time of Cline's December 2017 trial, there were only 22 known half-siblings that he had fathered. She also received phone calls from Cline asking her not to share the story with any journalists. To date, 94 siblings have been found, not including Cline's children with . In Our Father on Netflix, Cline's children tell their story, his victims speak out about their pain, and together, the families search for justice. As of right now, Cline has almost 100 children. him were first reported by WXIN-TV in May. His actions [] In the 1970s and 80s, when fertility doctor Donald Cline of Indianapolis was swapping out donor sperm without the consent of his patients and instead implanting his own fresh personal supply into them, he likely could not have anticipated the above statistic. Dr. Donald Cline inseminated dozens of women with his own sperm without their knowledge or consent during the 1970s and 1980s. Indianas attorney general, leading to a criminal offense many of them students that passion... 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