Man Fathers 96 Kids Through Donations, Quits Job to Connect With His Massive Brood

Dylan Stone-Miller, a 32-year-old soft­ware engi­neer from Geor­gia, made near­ly 100 dona­tions to a sperm bank that result­ed in at least 96 bio­log­i­cal chil­dren. Now, he has stepped away from his career to build rela­tion­ships with his mas­sive progeny.

Stone-Miller first start­ed donat­ing sperm in col­lege as a way to earn extra mon­ey after get­ting an under­age drink­ing tick­et. For six years, he rou­tine­ly donat­ed to Xytex sperm bank for $100 per deposit.

More than a decade lat­er, he was con­tact­ed out of the blue by the par­ents of a three-month-old girl named Harp­er, one of his many off­spring con­ceived through Xytex. Moved by meet­ing Harp­er, Stone-Miller piv­ot­ed his life to focus on con­nect­ing with the rest of his brood.

After quit­ting his job, Stone-Miller embarked on a 9,000 mile road trip this sum­mer to vis­it chil­dren across the coun­try. So far, he has met 25 of his kids and keeps a detailed spread­sheet to track their information.

While build­ing bonds with his bio­log­i­cal chil­dren has been reward­ing, it also rais­es com­plex ques­tions around what role Stone-Miller plays in their lives. The moth­ers of Harp­er and her sis­ter Har­low have told the girls that Stone-Miller is a donor, not their father.

Still, Stone-Miller hopes to fos­ter mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships, say­ing it was dif­fi­cult to tell Harp­er he was­n’t her dad. He plans to con­tin­ue his jour­ney meet­ing his prog­e­ny through September.

With 96 and count­ing, Stone-Miller’s sto­ry illus­trates the pow­er and poten­tial of sperm dona­tion to cre­ate uncon­ven­tion­al fam­i­lies. It’s a com­pli­cat­ed dynam­ic, but one he hopes to nav­i­gate with care as his unlike­ly fam­i­ly grows.