On May 11, Netflix offers “Our father to all”, a chilling documentary on a scandal that has shaken the United States for several years: that of a doctor father of dozens of children who discovered, years after their birth, they were part of the same family…
What if you meet a brother, a sister in the street, without even knowing it? This is the situation experienced by dozens and dozens of Indianapolis residents after the outbreak the scandal linked to Doctor Donald Cline, a doctor specializing in fertility who will be, on May 11, at the heart of a documentary on Netflix. His story is as chilling as it is fascinating. This specialist doctor indeed abused his position to conduct his little experiment without the knowledge of all his patients and their families, who came to see him because of their difficulties in conceiving. Because rather than inseminate women with sperm from an anonymous donor as he explained, it’s his own sperm that Donald Cline has used dozens of times.
Thanks to the curiosity of Jacoba Ballard, who carried out a DNA test in 2014 to find out if one or two people were born from the same donor as her, the dark secret has been revealed. Because after taking her test, Jacoba Ballard, a resident of Indianapolis, discovered that no less than seven other people shared her DNA, all living in the surrounding area. Curiosity then gave way to suspicions and this is what pushed her to investigate this chance which was not one. During her research, Jacoba Ballard discovered the common thread that connected all of her half-siblings: their mother to all had consulted, before their birth, a fertility specialist in Indianapolis: doctor Cline. The doubts of several of the children who confronted the doctor were confirmed when the latter ended up confessing: he had indeed used his sperm to inseminate dozens of women by making them believe that it was an anonymous donor.
“Our Father to All” will be available on May 11 on Netflix
According to the information gathered, in 2019 Jacoba Ballard had found 45 half-siblings, but there may be more. Although he confessed to his crime, Doctor Cline was never imprisoned. His license to practice medicine was taken away from him in 2018, 9 years after he retired. The whole story of the Cline children will therefore be told in the documentary. entitled “Our father” Where “Our father to all“, broadcast on May 11 on Netflix, the trailer of which is already available. Jacoba Ballard for her part, the one thanks to whom it all started, thanked Netflix and the production team of the documentary on her Facebook page. “They helped us tell our story, the truth that few people know. But I don’t think they know that it also helped me to rebuild myself. They gave me strength when I thought I had no nothing more to give”.
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