The Top 5 Most Shocking Moments From 'Our Father' on Netflix

Our Father is Netflix's latest true-crime documentary that will have everybody talking for weeks to come.

The documentary delves deep into the actions of disgraced fertility doctor, Dr. Donald Cline, who artificially inseminated his own sperm into some of his female patients, without their knowledge or consent in the 1980s.

The result? Cline has fathered 94 children to date, who are all half-siblings.

In 2014, one of his "children," Jacoba Ballard, decided to do a 23AndMe DNA test in search of her potential half-siblings, but what she would uncover would be beyond her worst imagination.

Our Father allows the half-siblings and their mothers, his victims, to tell their stories and fight for justice. The documentary also touches on the gaps in the legal system which made it difficult to criminally prosecute Cline for his actions.

Newsweek has a breakdown of the top 5 most shocking moments from Our Father on Netflix below.

The Top 5 Shocking Moments From Our Father on Netflix

1. Dr. Cline Fathered 90+ Children and Counting

As heard in recorded phone interviews with Jacoba Billard and in interviews with investigators in Our Father, Cline admits to using his own sperm on his patients but insisted it was only a few times.

He also stated there was no "sexual connotation" to his actions and he did not use his own semen in a "blasé" way.

At the time, Cline told his patients the sperm donors were medical residents (which are temporary positions), using each donor for only three pregnancies.

His victims had been under the impression they were receiving either donor sperm or it was the sperm of their husband.

However, in 2014 when Jacoba Ballard, then 35 years old, decided to do a 23AndMe DNA test, the results came back that she had seven half-siblings, and something did not quite sit right.

Alongside her half-siblings, Jacoba did a series of ancestry.com searches and reached out to potential matches, leading her to Dr. Donald Cline.

Jacoba and several of her half-siblings appear in Netflix's Our Father (recounting their experience of shock, anger, and ultimate disbelief in finding out the truth), including Julie Harmon (#14), Matt White (#17), Heather Woock (#22), Lisa Shepherd-Stidham (#33), Jason Hyatt (#48), Carrie Foster (#53) and Alison Kramer (#61).

In total, Cline fathered 94 children via artificial insemination and there is a possibility it could be much higher.

At the end of Our Father, Angela Ganote a Fox59 reporter who was one of the first to cover the story, urges any woman who has a child and who saw Dr. Cline, even if they were not experiencing problems with fertility, that their child takes a DNA test.

2. Dr. Cline Doesn't Acknowledge Paternity

Despite being the biological father of 94 children, Dr. Cline does not accept any paternity over his children.

At the end of Our Father, via recordings, Cline can be heard stating: "I don't look at these people and consider them to be my children."

His denial may come as no surprise to viewers, but one of the victims may stand out in some viewers' minds more than others in relation to those remarks.

Dr. Cline is the father of Sheereen and Mark Farber's twin daughters, Alison Kramer and her unnamed sister. Sheeren and Mark were once good friends of Dr. Cline's.

Dr. Cline was even the one to deliver their twins and at one point in Our Father, photographs are shown of Cline holding Kramer when she was just eight months old.

Sheeren speaks of her anger at Cline's actions but also her thanks for he was able to provide her with two children.

She shares: "On the other hand, I thought about the fact that because of his skills in operating on me and clearing up some of the things that were causing infertility, I was grateful to him. So, I have this mix of emotions and I have twin daughters who are absolutely delightful girls and you can't be angry when you've had what you always dreamed of."

Unfortunately, Dr. Cline has never given any reason to as why he did what he did.

3. Potential Link To The Quiverfull Movement

Some of Dr. Cline's children who appear throughout Our Father suspect he may have been a member of the Quiverfull movement, a highly conservative strain of Evangelical Christianity.

It is a theological position held by some Christian followers who believe large families are a direct blessing from God. They stress the importance of procreation and are anti-birth control, sterilization and abortion.

In Our Father, Ballard and her half-siblings explain how they first suspected Dr. Cline may be connected to the Quiverfull movement after she received an email from someone with a Quiverfull domain name.

Their biological mothers also spoke of numerous visible biblical verses across his office. These included Jeremiah 1:5, which also appeared on the Quiverfull website: "Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you."

Cline also quoted the same verse directly to Ballard when they met face to face.

Their suspicions were raised even further when they learned some Quiverfull believers are motivated to have numerous white children over fears the white race would disappear.

Ballard and her half-siblings all noted how they looked eerily similar: Caucasian, blue eyes, and blonde hair.

Nevertheless, there is no solid evidence Dr. Cline was actually a part of the Quiverfull movement.

4. The Story of Sibling #61

Alison Kramer was the 61st sibling to find out she was Cline's biological daughter.

If the shock that Kramer is the daughter of Shereen and Mark Farber (former friends of Dr. Cline's) is not enough, what she reveals next is truly sickening.

Kramer shares Dr. Cline went on to become Alison's fertility doctor when she was older. She recalls how he took care of all of her gynecological needs for two years, including cervical screenings and breast examinations.

"I can't even think about it without getting upset. I didn't get to have that knowledge. He knew. I didn't get to know that or have the chance to say, 'no. I would rather see someone else. I don't want someone who is biologically related to me, to touch me in that way", Kramer stated, holding back tears.

5. Dr. Cline Served No Prison Sentence

In 2017, a criminal investigation was eventually launched when four of Cline's "children" filed a complaint about him to Indiana's Attorney General.

However, as there is no law or legal structure in place criminalizing the act of a doctor inseminating a patient with his own sperm, he could not be criminally charged, even when two paternity tests filed as evidence in his criminal case named Cline as the biological father of two of his patient's children.

Due to the lack of evidence and requirements of the law in place, the actions of Dr. Cline did not constitute rape, battery, or sexual assault.

Instead, he was charged with two counts of obstructing justice and pleaded guilty.
He received a one-year suspended sentence, a $500 fine, and ultimately, served no prison time.

Dr. Cline also lost his medical license, but he had retired nearly a decade earlier in 2009.

He remains a free man today.

Our Father is streaming on Netflix now.