INDIANAPOLIS — Netflix's new documentary "Our Father" tells the story of a Zionsville fertility doctor who secretly used his own sperm to inseminate dozens of patients.
Dr. Donald L. Cline pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in 2017 and admitted that he inseminated patients using his semen without their knowledge in the 1970’s and 1980’s. He was arrested after some of his adult children learned that Cline was their biological father through at-home DNA testing services.
“I got a Facebook message from several of our sisters saying, ‘we’re matching as close relatives on Ancestry’ and somehow mentioned the name Cline,” Heather Woock told WRTV in May 2019.
Cline, who was 79 at the time of his conviction, was handed a one-year suspended sentence and served no jail time.
Paternity tests filed as evidence in his criminal case showed Cline was the biological father of at least two of his patients' children. The trailer for the new documentary suggests he may have fathered more than 90 kids.
"Our Father" premieres on Netflix on May 11.
More: Victims hopeful new law will protect against fertility fraud | Fertility doctor gets no jail time for lying about using his own sperm | 6 questions with star of documentary on fertility doc who inseminated patients with his sperm
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on Twitter: @vicryc.
