New Netflix documentary Our Father just dropped on and has caused a sensation among those who've watched it so far with one saying: "Our Father on Netflix is the most ****** up documentary I’ve ever watched" while another echoed the sentiment saying: "Just finished watching Our Father documentary on Netflix and I'm sick in my stomach. Dr Donald Cline sexually assaulted 94 women and counting by using his own sperm to impregnate women without their consent."
Our Father begins with the story of Jacoba Ballard, an only child conceived via donor sperm, who always dreamed of having a brother or sister. The Netflix synopsis reads: "An at-home DNA test led her to the discovery of not one but seven half-siblings – a number that defied best practices in fertility medicine. As the group set out to learn more about their curious family tree, they soon discovered the sickening truth.
The description continues: "Their parents’ fertility doctor had been inseminating his patients with his own sperm – without their knowledge or consent. As Ballard and her newfound siblings realized they’ve barely begun to untangle his dark web of deceit, their pursuit of justice lies at the heart of this profoundly unsettling story about an unimaginable breach of trust."
You'd be right in assuming this case sits firmly in the true crime category, but that’s one of the most shocking things about it. What Dr Cline did wasn't actually classed as illegal. Dr Cline was a top fertility doctor working in Indiana in the 1970 and is believed to have fathered up to 90 children without consent.
He is known to have retired from practice in 2009 but that wasn't until he'd worked in the area for 40 years. Dr Cline’s patients were told they were being given the sperm of a donor, with the doctor’s speciality allegedly being that he gave women “fresh” sperm rather than sperm which had previously been frozen and also told patients not to ever tell their children how they were conceived.
Director of the documentary Lucie Jourdan, said in an interview with The Guardian : “It was a very specific directive that you never ever tell your children you had fertility issues or insemination. This was part of the dialogue he had with his patients. They were trusting their doctor to give them the right advice.”
Viewers who have watched the documentary, which was released yesterday (May 11) are horrified by the lack of justice in the case so far. One said: "Just finished watching "our father" on Netflix, this bastard of a doctor, artificially inseminated over 90 women, all with his sperm... How is he not in jail? This is 100 per cent rape! The mothers did NOT consent to him doing so".
Another added: "Please watch “Our Father” on Netflix. I am disturbed that this man is still walking around free." More comments included: "Watched the Our Father documentary on Netflix last night. I am horrified that what that doctor did to those women yielded virtually no consequences. How can spitting in someone's face be a higher offense than medical rape? Unbelievable and yet entirely believable."
Our Father is available to stream now on Netflix.
