A fertility clinic in Leiderdorp, already under fire for using the same donor sperm hundreds of times, also lied to inspectors about other illegal practices, current affairs programme Nieuwsuur reported.

Between 2006 and 2017, the Medisch Centrum Kinderwens (MCK), one of the largest fertility clinics in the Netherlands, used sperm from 36 donors far beyond the legal limit of 25 children per donor. In total, more than 1,200 children and over 900 mothers have been affected.

It has now emerged that the clinic used sperm from donors who were older than the legal limit of 45 and that it was used to impregnate women from abroad against the donors’ express wishes. The clinic effectively lied by omission about this to inspectors who have been investigating the clinic since 2025, Nieuwsuur said.

The limit of 45 for donors is a legal requirement put in place because the age difference with the children would be too big otherwise, and because of a higher risk of medical problems in children.

In some cases, the donor was 50 or older, internal documents seen by Nieuwsuur showed. One donor told the programme he had been 47 when he began donating and continued until he was 52.

One of the women, whose child’s donor has died, said she felt cheated by the clinic. “If I had known that the donor was over twice my age at the time I would never have said yes,” she said.

Other donors, who had stipulated they did not want to father children abroad, found their wishes had been ignored. One donor found that apart from 25 children in the Netherlands, he has 25 abroad as well.

The clinic declined to comment but said in a statement it would await the results of about “historical and current practices” and would cooperate with the inspectorate in a new investigation about the latest charges.