Oh Netflix, somehow you still manage to shock us.
We've spent countless hours on the couch—don't judge—watching true crime documentaries over the years, but Netflix's new doc Our Father, premiering May 11, might be the most insane one yet.
Our Father tells the real-life story of Indianapolis-based former fertility doctor Donald Cline, who admitted to using his own sperm to impregnate unsuspecting patients more than 50 times throughout his career.
The documentary centers on Jacoba Ballard, who began to put the pieces of Cline's misdeeds together after an at-home DNA test revealed she had seven half-siblings. Ballard began corresponding with her new family members and the house of cards started to topple.
"As the group set out to learn more about their curious family tree, they soon discovered the sickening truth," according to Netflix. "Their parents' fertility doctor had been inseminating his patients with his own sperm—without their knowledge or consent."
The real story was even darker than the family could have imaged.
"As Ballard and her newfound siblings realized they've barely begun to untangle his dark web of deceit," said the streamer, "their pursuit of justice lies at the heart of this profoundly unsettling story about an unimaginable breach of trust."
Perhaps the most unsettling part about Our Father is that it's just the latest in a line of documentaries with eerily similar subject matter.
In 2020, HBO released Baby God, a documentary about fertility doctor Quincy Fortier, who used his own sperm to inseminate patients over his 30 year career. Similarly, Baby God featured the stories of the children born as a result Fortier's actions, in their attempt to get answers about their pasts and the continued impact on their families.
Last year, Dutch docu-series Seeds of Deceit told the story of Jan Karbaat, a respected doctor in the world of artificial insemination, who is alleged to have fathered close to 200 children by using his own sperm in patients.
Seeds of Deceit co-producer Monique Busman says the problem persists to this day, especially overseas.
"The law changed in 2004 so people cannot donate anonymously anymore, but there's no central registration. Donors can still go to several clinics," Busman told Variety. "Internationally, there's no central registration, and there's also the whole private sector where donors can just donate online. There was a guy a few weeks ago in the Netherlands who has 250 children. He's donating to women online. It's a warning to show what can happen when there are not enough laws and rules."
As for the subject of the new documentary, Cline was arrested in 2017 on two counts of obstruction of justice for lying to officials about artificially inseminating patients.
"I was scared. I was foolish in my actions and I should not have lied," he said at the time. "I am asking for mercy and compassion for myself."
Cline served no jail time.
Despite his retirement in 2009, Cline's medical license was revoked in 2018 and he was prohibited from ever applying for reinstatement.
Watch the disturbing true story of Dr. Cline and the lives of the families he forever altered when Our Father premieres May 11 on Netflix.
Read on for more ways to get your true crime fix.