Our Father Review
While there are many terrifying moments in this documentary, the most terrifying is that a law was only passed a few years ago to stop these doctors taking advantage of these women, and yet it is still so prolific.
Our Father looks at a fertility doctor called Dr Donald Cline who used his own sperm to impregnate dozens of women in his practice during the 70s and 80s without their knowledge. They believed they were going and getting their partner’s sperm inserted in them or official donors, however this was not true and was only found out decades later thanks to online ancestry DNA.
The shocking thing in this story, as well as how all the children of Dr Cline confronted him and spoke to him because there was no law that they could charge him with for doing this, was that he threatened them many times with the fact that he openly carried a gun and would gaslight them saying that if this came out in the press his life would be ruined. Not thinking that he had already ruined dozens of people’s lives already.
He did go to court and was fined $500 for obstructing justice by denying the allegations that these children were his by not giving up a DNA test, but that’s all he got! He never served jail time for ultimately raping these women and inseminating them with his own DNA, he was never charged with reckless abandonment of the children, and all manner of things that he should have been called out for. It’s disgusting not only the fact that he got away with this but also how he affected hundreds of lives, not only the children that he has produced, but their mothers and fathers too who never knew the truth.
There were two moments in this documentary which absolutely shook me to the core and one was the fact that not only was he the fertility doctor to one of the women that he inseminated, but he was also the fertility doctor to one of the children as well who did not know that he was her father. I can’t imagine that abuse of power and the fear you must feel knowing that you have gone to this man for years and years throughout your adult life for many very intimate examinations to then find out that he is your biological father. It makes me feel absolutely disgusted that this man got away with this and it’s only his name that is tarnished and not his actual life. I’m just thankful that it seems she was not inseminated by him too because in all honesty, I wouldn’t put it past him.
The other harrowing piece of evidence that we find is that Dr Cline would’ve never been accepted to be a donor due to chronic health conditions he had that he ultimately passed down to his children. They now suffer with long life issues because their father was disgusting enough to pass them on to them and not tell anyone. When you know you have family conditions you are able to spot them and deal with them and treat them, but so many of these would’ve gone under the radar or ignored because they would not have been in the family DNA, yet of course the family DNA was not what they thought it was.
This is an absolutely harrowing documentary that exposes how much power doctors have and how easily they can abuse it. We often put doctors and nurses on pedestals as angelic human beings, yet we have to remember that they are people just like you and I and they can easily take advantage of us in a second if they so wished. I hope this makes people become more observant of what is happening to them in the medical field and not let things slide as easily, especially the fact that this man got away with his crimes that he should’ve never got away with, and dozens of other doctors have done the same to their patients too.
What do you think of Our Father?
Until next time.
Moving Picture Review 