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By Eric Pfeiffer
New DNA tests suggest the owner of a British fertility clinic may have fathered
as many as 600 children, while keeping his donations a secret. And in an even
stranger twist, one of his newly discovered offspring says the man's belief in
eugenics may have been behind the decision.
The Telegraph reports that Bertold Wiesner and his wife operated a fertility
clinic in the 1940s and were responsible for helping more than 1,500 families
conceive. Two of the children conceived through clinic donations, Barry Stevens
and David Gollancz, took part in DNA testing that revealed both were conceived
using Wiesner's sperm.
"Using standard figures for the number of live births which result, including
allowances for twins and miscarriages, I estimate that he is responsible for
between 300 and 600 children," Gollancz told the paper.
Eighteen people conceived through the clinic between 1943 and 1962 were tested,
with about two-thirds of them matching Wiesner's DNA. However, it's nearly
impossible to determine exactly how many of the 1,500 children came directly
from Wiesner, since his wife Mary Barton reportedly destroyed the records from
the clinic. Wiesner himself died in the early 1970s.
Stevens told the Toronto Star that because of the donations he might have as
many as 1,000 relatives he has never met. In addition, the Star reports that
Austrian-born Wiesner was a "Communist sympathizer," who belonged to a club of
"left-wing biologists" who supporter experimental medical techniques.
"It was very much the era of eugenics," Stevens, now 59, told the Star. "People
on the left supported that, too, not just on the right." The Daily Mail reports
that the British House of Lords once described Wiesner's work as "the work of
Beelzebub."
"They felt that very talented people should spread their genes, and less
talented people should be discouraged from spreading their genes," Stevens
said.
U.K. law prohibits "bulk donations" in order to reduce the possibility of
unintended incest if couples from the same donor met and produced children.
British donors can now make up to 10 such donations. There are no similar
federal laws in the U.S.