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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Stuart Heritage

‘Every time I find a new sibling, it’s like I’m ruining their life’: the fertility doctor who went rogue

Jacoba Ballard Donald Cline Netflix Indiana
‘You could watch this and be oblivious to the fact that you’re part of it, then suddenly everyone in the film is your sibling’ … Our Father.
‘You could watch this and be oblivious to the fact that you’re part of it, then suddenly everyone in the film is your sibling’ … Our Father. Photograph: Netflix

Plenty of true crime documentaries revel in the cold case, doling out narratively complete stories that can be presented with the comforting buffer of history. Our Father, available on Netflix from Wednesday, is different. It is a shockingly, painfully current film.

Our Father tells the story of Jacoba Ballard, a blond haired, blue eyed woman who never felt she completely belonged in her family. After using a 23andMe DNA testing kit in 2014, she began to discover why. Her DNA results showed that she had a handful of half siblings from an unidentified father. As she began to investigate, the sickening truth started to reveal itself. Her biological father – and the biological father of her new siblings – was Donald Cline, her parents’ fertility doctor. Cline, it turned out, had habitually inseminated women with his own sperm without their consent or knowledge.

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