In a rare judicial move and a first in Canada, a Quebec judge this week granted an injunction to ban a fecund father and son in the province from donating any more of their sperm.
Court documents obtained by National Post note that, as of November 2024, the two donors had allegedly contributed to at least 613 children or ongoing pregnancies — 162 from Philippe Normand and 451 from his son, Dominik Seelos. (Another son, Raphaël Normand, stopped donating in 2020 and has no intention of doing so in the future.)
On Wednesday, Justice Simon Chamberland of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal granted the injunction, which will remain in effect until a judgment in the trial related to the case makes its own decision on the men’s future donations.
In his decision, Chamberland noted that the number of children conceived from the defendants’ sperm could cause psychological harm to those children by forcing them to reveal their biological origins to potential partners, and raises the risk of blood relations or unaware incest between half-siblings.
He also said the defendants had clearly expressed their intention to continue donating, and thus he had no hesitation in granting the injunction.
“Laurie” (a pseudonym because the plaintiff’s name is protected by a publication ban) is the plaintiff in the case and the mother of four children. The first three were conceived between 2009 and 2012 using sperm from Normand as part of a private donation. The fourth was conceived in 2017 with sperm from Seelos, also as part of a private donation.
But according to the plaintiff the two men lied about the number of children already conceived through their sperm donations, with Normand allegedly agreeing to limit his donations to no more than 10 families, except to add to families already started, and Seelos to a maximum of 25 children, also with the exception of adding to existing families. They also allegedly failed to tell her that they were father and son.
“Our client welcomes this decision with great relief,” said Jessica Lelièvre, Laurie’s lawyer, in a statement to National Post. “Despite clear assurances to our client and many other women that they would cease sperm donation after reaching a specified number of children, the defendants remained highly active in the province.”
Lelièvre added: “Their continued conduct created significant harm to our client and her children. Knowing that they can no longer donate their sperm while we prepare for trial provides important protection for our client and safeguards the rights and well-being of her children. It definitely lifts an important weight off our client’s shoulders.”
She had earlier referred to the case as representing
against the plaintive.
In 2023 the case was the subject of the miniseries Père 100 enfants (Father of 100 Children) by journalists and filmmakers Marie-Christine Bergeron and Maxime Landry. It can be
.
In 2004, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé called it a
telling reporters: “I think that it especially worries parents who have used the fertility service: ‘Could my boy or my girl be in contact with one of the other children?’ That is what is worrying in terms of public health.”
In
in the Netherlands, a man was banned from donating to fertility clinics in the Netherlands in 2017 after it emerged he had fathered more than 100 children. Instead, he carried on donating sperm abroad and online.
Then in 2023 he was ordered to stop donating sperm altogether and warned he could be fined more than 100,000 euros ($1.5 million) if he did so again. He was suspected of having fathered more than 550 children worldwide.
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