Europe’s most fertile man
Ed Houben is sought after by women all over Europe.
Ed Houben is sought after by women all over Europe, said John Laurenson in BBC.com. The Dutch “charitable sperm donor” is prized for his legendary powers of insemination, having fathered a staggering 98 children in the last decade. More unusually, he donates his sperm in the “traditional way”: by forgoing the syringe and having sex with the women—many of whom are married. “Much better chance of conception,” Houben explains. The 44-year-old started donating to sperm banks in 2002, but when the Netherlands banned anonymous sperm donation, he offered his stud services for free online. As requests poured in, Houben began keeping an up-to-date list of his children on his computer. One British couple now awaiting a delivery came to him after several unsuccessful trips to fertility clinics. “They stayed for eight days and—how should I put it correctly?—she and I slept together four times, and after almost 10 years of trying they had their first pregnancy.” The husbands, he says, rarely present a problem. They’re so eager to have a baby that they’re “beyond these feelings of, ‘Ooh, there’s a stranger sleeping with my wife.’” And that’s what it’s all about, Houben insists: the “beautiful hope of creating a new life that will be loved and looked after.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Trump is ruled in contempt'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Hainault sword attack: police hunt for motive
Speed Read Mental health is key line of inquiry, as detectives prepare to interview suspect
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Shardlake: a 'tightly plotted, gorgeously atmospheric piece of television'
The Week Recommends Arthur Hughes captivates in this 'eminently watchable' Tudor murder mystery
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published