A Dutch court ruled that the DNA of a late fertility doctor who possibly fathered up to 200 children by switching donors’ sperm with his own can be tested to confirm paternity.

The Guardian reported that, in 2017, 22 children conceived at Jan Karbaat’s Blijdorp medical center went to court and sought a DNA test. Karbaat, 89, died in April 2017, a month before the lawsuit, leading his family lawyer to argue that the test would violate the late doctor and his relatives’ privacy.

The court initially found there was insufficient evidence to warrant the DNA test but ordered that DNA collected from 27 personal objects of Karbaat’s be locked in a safe. However, The Guardian reported that the court reversed their decision after establishing a significant DNA link between one of Karbaat’s legal sons and children conceived at the doctor’s Barendrecht facility, which closed in 2009.

According to CNN, Karbaat’s son, who is alive, was found to have a material biological relationship with at least 47 children. The court also conceded that some of the donor children resembled Karbaat. A documentary about the clinic which aired on Dutch television alleged the late doctor fathered as many as 200 children.

The judge found that if Karbaat covertly used his own sperm to impregnate patients, “his widow and other heirs cannot claim that the doctor’s anonymity should be respected.”

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