Is Kidmaxxing the Ultimate Status Symbol for Ultimate Wealth?

By Anna Louie Sussman

Ms. Sussman, a contributing Opinion writer, is the author of the forthcoming book “Inconceivable: The Impossibility of Family in an Age of Uncertainty.”

Birthrates in much of the developed world are at record lows, but there’s one demographic group that’s exploring new frontiers of fertility: ultrawealthy men. Deploying nearly limitless resources, a small number of them are reproducing at such an extraordinary scale and pace that they’re exploding previous notions of what a family is. At a moment when so many people say they feel priced out of having even one child, these adventures in prolific fatherhood are emerging as a stark example of inequality made flesh.

Numerous reports have landed in recent years about men using reproductive technology to produce dozens of offspring. The billionaire developer Stefan Soloviev has 22 children, some conceived through clinical methods. Pavel Durov, the billionaire Russian founder of the messaging platform Telegram, said his sperm donations had produced over 100........

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