Real Life Horror Film! Tale Of A Criminal Fertility Doctor, 'Our Father' Will Leave You Nauseated
There have been times when the gravity of a certain crime has left us uncomfortable for hours, days and some even months. We often wonder how someone in their right mind could go to such a dreadful extent, right?
This is exactly how the newly released Netflix documentary Our Father will make you feel. It features a harrowing story of a fertility doctor impregnating several unsuspecting women with his own sperm and WITHOUT their consent.
It narrates the journey of a woman named Jacoba Ballard, who discovers as many as 94 half-siblings of herself and it doesn't have a happy ending, mind you!
In its duration of almost 90 minutes, youĄŻll be served with waves of horrors thatĄŻll make you squirm in your seat.
It begins with Ballard discovering a heinous truth about her own life - She was secretly fathered by her motherĄŻs fertility doctor, who continuously impregnated many women without their knowledge in the 1980s.
?It all started with Jacoba and her quest to know her family ancestry. She signed up for 23andme, a DNA test to map her family line only to be confronted with the most harrowing truth of her life.
Much to her chagrin, Jacoba witnessed the ugliest reality that she isnĄŻt biologically related to the man that she thought was her father. If this wasnĄŻt ground shaking enough, over the time, she discovered that she had several undocumented siblings.
Soon, this led her on an investigative mission and her findings were far from pleasant. The discovery that she made soon turned into a nightmare. After undertaking the DNA test, she had expected three siblings as the doctor had informed her mother that one donor is only used for a maximum of three times. In the first go, Ballard was alerted to 10 half-siblings within a small radius.
Soon she reached the conclusion that the common factor in all of this was Dr Donald Cline.
Upon further investigation, it was found out that for decades, Cline would destroy all the samples that would reach the clinic including both donors and respective husbands. During the process of insemination, he would masturbate in the next room, collect his sperms and then insert his own semen in unsuspecting women waiting in the other room.
By this point, most of you would be wondering was it for cheap thrills or was there a legit motive behind his wrongdoing? Well, there is an extremely twisted reason - turns out that doctor Cline was an elder of the church and a religious fanatic who was somewhat motivated by a cult that believed that a certain section of the society is god sent and are supposed to reproduce as many times as possible.
As the documentary goes on, Jacoba finds more and more half-siblings and surprisingly most of them are found to be living in close proximity to each other for decades. It also ignites a sickening fear that they could have even coupled up over the years.
A group of siblings also had a meeting with their ĄŽfatherĄŻ and thatĄŻs when Cline handed over a note to Jacoba which has Christian scripture Jeremiah 1:5 scribbled on it. The verse read,
'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'
Apparently, this scripture is also a popular reading from the Quiverfull cult movement. This cult of a conservative Christian group believed that large families are a blessing and children are viewed as arrows that are meant to be shot into the world, in the hopes that one day, they may rise to positions of prominence and power.
ThereĄŻs also a racist angle involved in this belief. In the documentary, it has been mentioned that this child-rearing practice stemmed from the idea that other races were infiltrating the white race. ThatĄŻs the reason why Jacoba and all her siblings had blonde hair and blue eyes. In her own words, 'ItĄŻs almost like weĄŻre like this perfect Aryan clan and itĄŻs disgusting.'
One would think that such a big scandal would not go unpunished. However, Don Cline got almost away with it because there was no legislation that termed illicit donor insemination as illegal in the 80s.
It was only in 2018 that mothers and daughters successfully passed this legislation in Indiana that made such practice illegal. The documentary highlights that there is currently no federal law preventing it probably because these are rare and unlikely circumstances. However, by the end of the documentary comes this revelation: "Thanks to at-home DNA testing, 44 additional doctors have been found to have used their own sperm to inseminate fertility patients."?
As for Cline, in 2018, he finally surrendered his license to the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, who also voted to ban him from ever being able to reinstate his license again.
People on the internet have been voicing their disgust after watching this dreadful film.
Though it's definitely not an easy watch, it's thrilling to watch Ballard and her newfound siblings turn their trauma into a campaign for justice and accountability.
