British Man 'Fathered 600 Children' at Own Fertility Clinic
By Rebecca Smith,
Telegraph
| 04. 08. 2012
Bertold Wiesner and his wife Mary Barton founded a fertility clinic in London in the 1940s and helped women conceive 1,500 babies.
It was thought that the clinic used a small number of highly intelligent friends as sperm donors but it has now emerged that around 600 of the babies were conceived using sperm from Mr Wiesner himself.
Two men conceived at the clinic, Barry Stevens a film-maker from Canada and David Gollancz, a barrister in London, have researched the centre and DNA tests suggest Mr Wiesner, an Austrian biologist, provided two thirds of the donated sperm.
Such a practice is outlawed now but at the time it was not known that Mr Wiesner was providing the majority of the samples.
The same sperm donor should not be used to create so many children because of the risk that two of the offpsring will unwittingly meet and start a family of their own, which could cause serious genetic problems in their children.
DNA tests were conducted on 18 people conceived at the clinic between 1943 and 1962. The results showed...
Related Articles
By Dr. Coco Newton, Progress Educational Trust | 03.30.2026
Have you ever wondered what it means to have dozens of half-siblings across the world – or to never know where half of your genetic identity comes from? A recent episode of Zembla explores the human consequences of the global...
By Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe, Wired | 04.24.2026
Two companies that launched last year with plans to create gene-edited babies have already shut down, citing money issues and internal conflict.
One of them, Manhattan Genomics of New York, closed abruptly shortly after announcing a team of scientific advisers...
By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites Katie Hasson] | 04.27.2026
"Si on en prouve la sûreté, nous croyons que l’édition préventive du génome pourrait être l’une des technologies de santé les plus importantes du siècle. » Lucas Harrington explique ainsi le but de son entreprise Preventive : créer des bébés génétiquement modifiés...
By Abby Vesoulis, Mother Jones | 04.18.2026
Two years ago, we devoted an entire issue to the rise of the American oligarchy. Since then, our oligarchic system has become more entrenched and pervasive, revolving around a small crew of tech titans whose quest for wealth and...
