A woman who is claiming compensation from the heirs of the controversial fertility doctor Jan Karbaat has been caught in court because of the statute of limitations.
The woman was born in September 1989, according to the judgment of the civil court. At the time, her mother underwent artificial insemination in MC Blijdorp, the Karbaat clinic. In 2017 she found out that she had 34 half-siblings at that time and in 2018 she found out through DNA testing that Karbaat is her donor father. According to the woman, Karbaat deliberately withheld information from her and her mother, by saying, among other things, that the donor would be a good friend of his and by providing a donor passport with incorrect information. According to the woman, the donor sperm was also insufficiently screened for hereditary diseases.
Mental injury
According to the woman, she has suffered physical and mental injuries, including panic disorders, depressive symptoms and exacerbation of endometriosis symptoms as a result of the stress of searching for her origins. She also has anxiety because she is afraid of getting the hereditary diseases of which her donor father was a carrier and because she is afraid that she will – unknowingly – enter into a relationship with a half-sibling with all the consequences that entails. In June 2021, she therefore demanded compensation for the (im)material damage by letter from Karbaat’s heirs. It is not stated in the judgment how high that compensation should be.
Too late
However, the court rules that the woman is not entitled to compensation, because the facts are time-barred. In her case, a liability claim would be possible up to twenty years after the event that caused the damage. If a victim does not find out about the facts until later, the court considers a period of two years to be a reasonable term for a liability claim. As far as the judge is concerned, she is too late, because she already knew in 2017 that things were not right.
