A new Netflix documentary, Our Father, tells the story of how one woman’s at-home DNA test led her to discover she had numerous half-siblings.
After she had made contact with her brothers and sisters, they delved deeper into their unusual family tree, unearthing a chilling connection between them and trusted fertility doctor and church elder Donald Cline.
Their parents’ fertility doctor had been inseminating patients with his own sperm, without their knowledge or consent, between 1978 and 1988, resulting in the births of at least 94 children.
Here’s what you need to know.
What happened to the 94 babies from Our Father?
Jacoba Ballard is Our Father’s protagonist, as the documentary traces her initial discovery, at 35-years-old, that she had seven half-siblings by taking a DNA test.
After she contacts her brothers and sisters, they join forces to investigate their family tree, which eventually leads them to Cline, who admits to being their biological father.
Jacoba and several of her half-siblings share their difficulties in coming to terms with the shocking revelation.
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).
Four of the half-siblings filed a complaint about Cline’s actions to Indiana’s attorney general, leading to a criminal investigation.
But it was not illegal then for a doctor to inseminate a patient with his own sperm, and the records needed to prove criminal deception had been destroyed.
Instead, in 2017 Cline was charged with obstructing justice. By then in his eighties, Cline was fined $500 and given a year of probation. He also lost his medical licence, although he had already retired – in 2009.
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Indiana later became the first US state to make it a criminal offence for fertility doctors to use their own sperm without a patient’s consent.
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. His children frequently see each other on the street.
Some have become friends and meet for coffee or lunch. They have even organised an annual picnic, held over Father’s Day weekend.
And sometimes they think about how many more half-siblings are out there, yet to take a DNA test that would prove Cline’s paternity, and whether their children might date each other unawares.
Where is Donald Cline?
In an interview with The Guardian the director of Our Father, Lucie Jourdan, as well as Ballard say Cline is still alive.
“Some people online have said he’s dead,” Ballard told the publication. “He’s not dead. He’s active around his community.
Jourdan adds: “He’s going to grandchildren’s swim meets and things like that. There’s no hiding. That’s the thing, he’s still out and about. In his head, I don’t think he thinks he’s done much wrong.”
Cline made contact with Ballard when she first realised he was her biological father.
Jourdan said his words to her were: “The world does not need to know.”
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