A British scientist ‘fathered 600 children’ by donating sperm at his own fertility clinic
Barry Stevens with a photograph of his father Bertold Wiesne
- Bertold Wiesner set up the controversial London Barton clinic with his wife Mary Bartons in the 1940s
- Only select members of the couple’s friends were chosen as donors to help women conceive 1,500 babies
- Two biological sons have found 18 others conceived at clinic - 12 were fathered by Dr Wiesner
A British scientist fathered up to 600 children after founding a fertility clinic that promised to provide sperm donors from ‘intelligent stock’, it emerged yesterday.
Biologist Bertold Wiesner supplied sperm to the partners of infertile men from the middle and upper classes, including ‘peers of the realm’.
His wife Mary Barton later destroyed medical records, meaning most of those conceived there – and their thousands of subsequent offspring – have no idea of their true family history and blood ties.
But two men conceived by artificial insemination at the practice, which operated from the early 1940s until the mid-1960s, have completed research suggesting up to two-thirds of sperm donations during that period were by Wiesner.
David Gollancz, one of Wiesner’s biological sons, estimated he would have made 20 donations a year, meaning he is likely to have fathered between 300 and 600 children.
The barrister found out in 1965, at the age of 12, that he was born from a sperm donor, but was never told who his biological father was.
He finally discovered the truth through DNA tests and has subsequently made contact with 11 of his half-siblings, including documentary-maker Barry Stevens, who led research into the clinic. Mr Gollancz said he had mixed feelings about his unusual family history.
He said: ‘It’s rather uncomfortable, because artificial insemination was developed on an industrial scale for cattle and I don’t like the feeling of having been “bred”.
‘But meeting the half siblings that I have tracked down has been a very life-enriching experience. This does make it frustrating too, because I know there are all those other siblings out there who I don’t know but would really like to meet. I’d love to be able to hire a huge marquee and invite them all to a party.’
Wiesner and Barton’s clinic, based in London’s Portland Place, is believed to have helped women conceive around 1,500 babies known as the ‘Barton Brood’.
The high fees meant most of their clients were middle-class, but Barton also claimed to have helped many of the upper classes and even some ‘peers of the realm’.
The couple used family friends to provide sperm, but a shortage of donors is believed to have led to Wiesner providing the majority.
DNA tests were carried out in 2007 on 18 people conceived at the clinic between 1943 and 1962. The tests found that 12 of the group – two-thirds – were Wiesner’s children.
Dr Barton told a 1959 government forum on artificial insemination: ‘I matched race, colouring and stature and all donors were drawn from intelligent stock.’
She added: ‘I wouldn’t take a donor unless he was, if anything, a little above average.
‘If you are going to do it [create a child] deliberately, you have got to put the standards rather higher than normal.’
An article the couple wrote in 1945 about their work prompted a peer to denounce their activities in the House of Lords as ‘the work of Beelzebub’.
Geoffrey Fisher, then Archbishop of Canterbury, also demanded the closure of the clinic.
Austrian-born Wiesner died in 1972, aged 70. His wife died 11 years ago.
Mr Gollancz was involved in a campaign to stop sperm donors being anonymous, but said he still wanted further changes in the law.
He said: ‘I would like to see birth certificates also carrying the name of the sperm or egg donor.
‘Most recipient parents don’t tell their children they are conceived this way, meaning they would never know to search for a donor father.
‘People have a right to know about their own history.’The plan to build a Children’s hospital on Mater site has been given new life by fresh agreement
The Mater Hospital in Dublin has joined forces with the Rotunda and Temple Street hospitals in a campaign to rescue the national children’s hospital planned for the Mater site in Eccles Street.
An Bord Pleanala refused planning permission for the proposed development in February on the basis that its height, bulk, scale and mass would have a profound negative impact on Dublin?s skyline.
It is understood the latest proposal is based on a willingness by the Sisters of Mercy, who own the Mater, to cede the original hospital building to the State so that it could be used to accommodate the teaching and research facilities associated with the children’s hospital – thus allowing the building to be scaled down.
The chairman of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital; the chairman of the Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street; and the chairwoman of the Rotunda Hospital said they had “come together as a single entity to reinforce the case for proceeding with the national paediatric hospital on the Mater site”.
Speaking on behalf of the three hospitals, Temple Street Hospital chairman Donal Walsh said they welcomed the opportunity to make a submission to the recently established National Paediatric Hospital Review Group, and had written to chairman Dr Frank Dolphin, seeking a meeting to present their proposal.
This follows An Bord Pleanála’s unexpected decision on February 23rd to refuse planning permission for the proposed development on the basis that its height, bulk, scale and mass would have a “profound negative impact” on Dublin’s skyline and “seriously detract from the setting and character of protected structures”.
In a joint statement issued to The Irish Times, the three hospitals said their “tripartite submission” to the review group would involve a redesign of the rejected scheme, with a reduction in height “to comply with local area planning” and a reduction in its density, but with “no diminution in the clinical and care services”.
Expressing confidence that the submission would meet “all the requirements” of the review group, they said the scheme would make full provision for “tri-located” adult, maternity and paediatric services, adding that it would fulfil “best cost and value for money criteria” and could be built with “minimal delay”.
The three hospitals – chaired by John Morgan (Mater), Hilary Prentice (Rotunda) and Mr Walsh (Temple Street) – said they were working with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, headed by Harry Crosbie, “to ensure that the most appropriate solution is put forward to the review group as a national priority”.
Asked to confirm that the latest plan is based on an offer by the Mater to cede part of its site to the State, PR company Corporate Reputations said: “We are not putting forward a spokesperson or offering additional comment at this point, but will be issuing more updates on the submission as this campaign progresses.”
In 2006, the Sisters of Mercy agreed to cede just over two hectares (nearly five acres) of land at the Mater to facilitate development of the children’s hospital “unencumbered and at no cost to the State”. They further indicated a willingness to cede a smaller area of land for the development of a “co-located” maternity hospital.
The move is seen by some as an effort to ensure that the hospital is built at the Mater, rather than any alternative site, but it remains to be seen whether the project can be sufficiently scaled down to achieve planning permission from An Bord Pleanála.
Proposals for at least 15 alternative sites have been submitted to the review group appointed last month by Minister for Health James Reilly, including the offer earlier this week by developers Flynn and O’Flaherty of an eight-acre site on the former Phoenix Park racecourse.
Over 3,000 new teachers will be needed by2025,
Teachers union insists
MORE THAN 3,000 additional teachers will be required to cope with the increase in student numbers, according to a teacher’s union.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland says the projected increase of 20 per cent in student numbers at second level over the next 12 years must boost teacher numbers.
Its annual conference, which begins tomorrow, is expected to rail against any further increases in the pupil-teacher ratio.
Department of Education projections indicate second-level enrolment student numbers will increase from 325,000 to about 383,000 by 2025, an increase of 18 per cent.
The union estimates that 3,000 additional teachers (about 230 per annum) will be required.
Union president Bernie Ruane said it would be unconscionable that the students of 2015, 2017 or 2020 would have their legitimate educational aspirations impeded by further cuts affecting the pupil-teacher ratio. This would fly in the face of the very purpose of the Department of Education and Skills and would be a perversion of public policy.
“This need for additional teachers will also provide a window of opportunity for those young teachers currently struggling to obtain enough teaching hours to earn a living and should also offer hope to those young people currently studying to join the profession.
“In too many cases, we are losing these talented teachers to classrooms in other jurisdictions at the very time when the children of this country need them,” she said.
Ms Ruane said the education system was suffering the strain of various cutbacks over the last four years.
“Teacher numbers have been cut, programmes that benefited marginalised students have been savaged and vital positions such as Year Head are no longer being filled when they become vacant. Our schools have clearly suffered enough.”
MEANWHILE:
Teachers call for reduced Church controlled schools in Ireland
Teachers are urging greater diversity in the patronage of primary schools, in what amounts to a call for more schools to be run by organisations other than the Catholic Church.
Members of the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation (INTO), whose annual congress begins today in Killarney, will vote on a motion calling for “systematic and planned measures” to make sure that schools are managed by a variety of different organisations.
The motion put forward by the Central Executive Committee of the primary teachers’ union welcomes the work of the Forum on Pluralism and Patronage, which was established by education minister Ruairí Quinn as a mechanism for allocating the future management of Ireland’s schools.
It says “systematic and planned measures to ensure diversity of school patronage” should be put in place, alongside plans to make sure that “all schools cater effectively for diversity in the school community”.
INTO members will also vote on motions calling for a reversal in the Government’s controversial Budget cuts to small schools, and for the Croke Park deal on pay and pensions to be maintained and protected.
Meanwhile, one motion condemns “the deliberate and concerted attempt by politicians and sectors of the media to denigrate the professionalism and expertise of teachers”, which it says has led to a “deplorable deterioration in working conditions and job satisfaction”.
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