Where is fertility specialist Dr. Donald Cline Now? What happened to him? Let’s find out more information about him. The tragic story of Dr. Donald Cline, a disgraced fertility doctor and once-respected expert in the area, is the latest documentary to hit the global streaming platform.
Dr. Cline used his own sperm, not that of their donors, to artificially inseminate his female patients in the early 1980s, without their permission or knowledge. The scope of his actions and their consequences were not discovered until 2014, and they are still being discovered.
Not only did it cause the children to question their identity, but it also shattered the faith that the fertility doctor’s patients had in him and raised an important ethical challenge.
Netflix’s Our Father follows several of his “children,” who have discovered they are half-siblings, as they reminisce about the day they realised Cline was their father and what they did next to reveal the truth.
They could not have predicted the darkness and depths of their experience, though. Spiky TV offers all the information you need on Dr. Donald Cline and his current location.
Must Read: Where Is Reporter Angela Ganote Now?
Who is Dr. Donald Cline and How Many Children did Cline father?
Dr. Donald AKA Don Cline, a Zionsville citizen, was a well-known figure in Indianapolis throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He interned at Methodist Hospital after receiving his undergraduate degree and then his M.D. from Indiana University. He also served two years in the United States Air Force and another 12 years in the inactive reserve before receiving an honourable discharge.
Cline launched his fertility clinic in the late 1970s, which proved to be a blessing for countless infertile couples. For his expertise, he was featured in various papers and journals. From 1971 through 1981, Cline had a high success rate in assisting women in becoming pregnant using artificial insemination, a relatively new medical method at the time. His sperm donors, according to the doctor, were medical residents, and he only utilised each one for three healthy pregnancies.
Cline claimed to have utilised fresh sperm for the patients, but by the 1980s, he had switched to frozen samples from Follas Laboratories in Indianapolis. Things took a startling turn in 2014, when Jacoba Ballard, then 34, determined to learn more about her ancestors.
Ballard visited a genomics and biotech website that helps people learn more about their ancestors and find long-lost relatives. She knew she was conceived by a sperm donor since she was ten years old and wanted to learn more about her biological father. Ballard was surprised to learn that she had seven more half-siblings born over a seven-year period, all of whom shared the same father.
Her mother then revealed that she sought aid from Cline’s clinic in 1979 and was able to conceive successfully. Ballard gradually went out to the other half-siblings she’d uncovered, and they all had one thing in common: their moms had all gone to Cline for treatment and had used donor insemination. Ballard and her half-sister Kristy Killion filed a report with the Indiana Attorney General’s office, outraged by the revelation. The office and a Marion County grand jury both examined both ladies.
Meanwhile, another of Cline’s children questioned his conduct in a letter. “We used fresh samples collected around one hour before the insemination,” he replied back, denying her accusations. I matched the donor’s blood type and overall physical traits to those of my patient’s husband. I nearly always used resident physicians, and the majority of them were married with children.
Furthermore, there was no history of any illnesses in their family. I couldn’t possible recall anything else after all these years.”
Cline received two letters from the Attorney General’s office in January 2015 informing him that he was being investigated. He answered by saying he had thrown out all of the old patient reports and that between 1971 and 1981, he exclusively utilised fresh sperm.
“I had no idea who the frozen donors were… “I can categorically state that I have never used my own material for insemination, nor have I ever been a donor at Follas Laboratories,” Cline stated. Later, the laboratories revealed that they had no records of working with him.
One of the half-siblings told Angela Ganote, a reporter for the Fox59 news channel, her story in May 2015. The case was then referred to Tim Delaney, the Marion County prosecutor at the time. Ballard and Killion began constructing a family tree based on individuals who had contacted them, concluding that Cline had either used a relative’s sperm samples or his own. They then called Cline’s children, Doug and Donna, as well as his wife, Audrey.
Doug and Donna revealed that their father admitted to using his sperm only eight times at first but later modified the amount to a larger number. Ballard and Killon met their biological father for the first time in 2016, together with four other half-siblings. Cline is said to have told them that he had used his sperm up to 50 times. Following Angela’s report, several new children born to Cline surfaced, including Matthew White.
Liz, Matthew’s mother, seemed to believe that her doctor “raped” her because he never asked for her permission to use his sperm. “I was raped 15 times as a person and didn’t even realise it,” Liz claimed. In September 2016, he was charged with two charges of obstruction of justice for lying to the Attorney General’s office previously, based on all the DNA tests of all the half-siblings who indicated that their mothers had approached Cline as well as his own.
Every month, new half-siblings appear on DNA testing sites, indicating that he has fathered over 94+ children.
What happened to Dr. Donald Cline and Where Is He Now?
Dr. Donald Cline, then 79 years old, pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice in mid-December 2017. He was fined $500, but his one-year prison term was unexpectedly suspended due to the numerous letters the court received attesting to his excellent behaviour and advanced age. “Out of fear, I acted alone and irresponsibly, I lied,” Cline stated after his sentence.
Cline then refused to say much on the claims against him in a May 2019 interview. He had retired from practising in 2009, and the Indiana Medical Licensing Board revoked his licence in 2018, prohibiting him from reapplying. Cline, as far as we know, is currently residing in Zionsville and has maintained a low profile since 2018. Cline was said to have fathered 94 (and counting) children at the time of the Netflix documentary’s production.
Our Father director Lucie Jourdan said in a statement to Netflix that campaigners, Cline’s children, and the moms had successfully pushed to have laws passed criminalising Cline’s actions.
Indiana was the first state in the United States to make it unlawful for fertility specialists to use their own sperm without the consent of their patients. However, there is currently no federal legislation that deems Cline’s actions illegal.
“The catharsis that the film brings these siblings, having their tale finally told, makes this a wild success to me,” she said. “Cline did everything he could to keep them and the filmmaking quiet. He stated, “The world doesn’t need to know.” We, however, disagree. May their cries be heard around the world as the depravity of his conduct is finally exposed.”
Our Father is currently available on Netflix.