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Netflix’s Paternity Test

Here’s an unscripted plot twist: Netflix has become a villain in its own documentary film, about a fertility specialist who secretly inseminated his patients, after disclosing the names of the doctor’s children without their consent. A lawsuit, now headed to a jury trial, raises the provocative question: Did they have a constitutional right to remain private?

our father Keith Boyle as Donald Cline
The question for the jury will be whether two of Cline’s biological children maintained discretion over their identities as the fertility specialist’s offspring. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
Eriq Gardner
November 20, 2024

Netflix, which has become a magnet for boundary-pushing lawsuits, is staring down the barrel of yet another First Amendment trial. This one is related to its chilling 2022 documentary Our Father, a Blumhouse production about Dr. Donald Cline, the Indiana fertility specialist who was revealed in 2015 to have secretly fathered at least 94 children by inseminating his unwitting patients. Netflix aggressively marketed the film, buying a Times Square billboard that featured Cline’s image and the teaser, “Could he be your father?” When the documentary catapulted to the top of Netflix’s most watched list, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum tweeted, “Yea baby. That’s our movie!!! Number 1!”