Fertility Doctor Donald Cline Fathered Dozens of Illegitimate Children; who is his wife?
Famous streaming website Netflix brings into the spotlight unethical acts committed by Dr. Donald Cline through his time crime documentary Our Father.
This Netflix series focuses on Dr. Donald Cline, who was illegitimate over 94 children between the late 1970 and 1980 in Indianapolis.
He illegitimate dozens of children by inseminating fertility patients with his own sperm rather than a donor’s sperm.
Lucie Jourdan directs this Netflix documentary; she covers a series of interviews in this documentary series. The documentary is about Jacoba Ballard, one of Cline’s kids. Jacoba bought an ancestry DNA kit one day and discovered she was related to seven half-siblings she had never heard of.
Who is Dr. Donald Cline?
Donald Cline is a former doctor who worked as a fertility doctor in Indianapolis. He was included as one of the top doctors in his area. Additionally, Donald was swapping the donor sperm he was meant to use to inseminate patients. As a result, Cline is thought to have fathered more than 90 children between 1979 and 1986.
Dr. Donald Cline’s wife, Susie
Donald Cline’s wife was not a part of the Netflix documentary, but the documentary confirms that she also received fertility treatment from his husband.
Not much information about Susie is available, but the couple has two children together named Donna and Doug.
In a 2019 article in The Atlantic, author Sarah Zhang spoke with a number of Cline’s adopted kids. Donald did meet with some of his kids before it aired. Jacoba Ballard contacted him for information, and his son Doug set up the meeting.
Jacoba disclosed that Donald had called her after the meeting and complained to her :
“Jacoba digging up the past was destroying his marriage”: His wife regarded his activities as adultery.
In the conversation, he allegedly also acknowledged using his sperm to inseminate his patients, but he said he had only done it “nine or ten times.”
Whether Donald and Susie are still together is presently unknown.
How Many Kids Did Donald Cline’s Father Have?
Dr. Donald Cline has two children, but after the Netflix documentary, Cline is confirmed to have 94 half siblings and children, and the number is more likely to increase once Donald Cline’s DNA tests are concluded.
How The Donald Cline Act came to light?
Jacoba Ballard, a resident of central Indiana, discovered she had seven half-siblings in 2015 when she conducted an at-home DNA test. She conducted her own research and came to FOX59’s Angela Ganote with her suspicions that Cline was the children’s father.
Ganote helped the siblings link the Cline and provided evidence that the Cline lied to the investigators who were looking into the claims that he was the siblings’ father.
Donald ultimately pleaded guilty in 2017 and was charged with two counts of obstruction of Justice with a fine of $500.
After investigation, Cline pays $1.35 Million in his donor’s sibling case as a settlement.
Why wasn’t Donald Cline charged legally?
Dr.Cline admitted to using his own sperm instead of donors without asking his patients, and even a DNA test has also proved that he Fathered the children, yet there is now a law that addresses this type of crime.
According to Fox59 news:
Winingham says, ” I absolutely think that the crime was committed, but there’s no statute law addressing this type of harm, so it was really impossible to charge the doctor with a crime.”
In 2019 a criminal statute was passed addressing Dr. Cline’s crime, but Dr. Clone is most likely not to be charged under it because the acts were performed before the statute had passed.