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The disturbing phenomenon that occurs again and again in fertility treatments
What causes fertility doctors around the world to fertilize patients with their own semen, without their knowledge and consent?
Maybe money, maybe intoxication of power or a craze for greatness - not clear.
What is clear is that this is happening much more than you think
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seed
fertility
IVF
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Wednesday, 02 September 2020, 10:35
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In recent years, following the development of home DNA tests that have become more common in the world, more and more people are discovering a dark and disturbing secret about how they came into the world.
In the last decade there have been quite a few cases where people, who came into the world following fertility treatments and in vitro fertilization, conducted these tests in hopes of learning more about their genetics, or locating "siblings" (descendants of the same biological father), and instead found that their biological father was not who they thought Or whoever told them, that if the fertility doctor who was in charge of in vitro fertilization.
That's pretty much what happened to Kelly Rowlet.
She turned to Ancestry.com in 2017 for a DNA test and was surprised to find that there was no biological connection between her and her father.
Instead, she discovered she was sharing genes with a man named Gerald Mortimer.
An inquiry revealed that this was the name of the doctor who helped bring her into the world.
Roult filed a lawsuit in which it was revealed that the local gynecologists' association at Idaho Falls, where Dr. Mortimer was born and worked, had been aware for some time that Mortimer used to fertilize his patients with his own semen.
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On the face of it this case sounds delusional and unusual.
he is not.
I mean, he's very delusional, but unfortunately not as unusual as we'd like to think.
There are more and more people around the world who are discovering that they too were born under similar circumstances.
An illusory phenomenon, but not uncommon.
Sperm and egg (Illustration: ShutterStock)
In 2019, a DNA analysis was published confirming that a Dutch fertility doctor named Jan Karbat, who had died two years earlier at the age of 89, was the biological father of at least 49 children born to women who were his patients at the Rotterdam Clinic.
Carbat used to deceive his patients and present them with external data and descriptions of potential sperm donors from which they could choose, when in practice he performed the fertilization with his sperm.
It is possible that the true number of the offspring he raised for himself in this deceptive method is much higher - he estimated that these were about 60 cases.
In 1992 - many years before home DNA tests appeared - the New York Times reported on a Virginia doctor named Cecil B.
Jacobson, who violated dozens of his patients with his semen without their knowledge and consent.
Jacobson was convicted in court on 52 counts of fraud and perjury and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
It is estimated that he gave birth to more than 70 children with this method.
The cases discovered to date are only a fraction of the millions of children born around the world as a result of in vitro fertilization.
Laboratory IVF Procedure (Illustration: shutterstock)
This is called "fertility scam" and it is still not clear how common this phenomenon is.
The cases that have been exposed and published in the media around the world constitute only a tiny fraction of the millions of children born around the globe from artificial insemination and other advanced fertility treatments.
It is estimated, however, that this number of cases will increase as home DNA tests become more common, and more people around the world choose to do them.
"It's not just a blatant ethical violation, it's also stupidity"
"Until they do DNA testing at birth and compare the DNA of the baby born to that of whoever is supposed to be his parents and make sure there is a match, we can never know how often this phenomenon occurs," said Dr. Julie Cantor, a lecturer at her home. S. of Law at the University of California and an expert in medical law and fertility rights, in an interview with IFLScience.
"We all hope to find that infertility scams are a relatively rare occurrence - isolated cases of doctors deviating from the groove and a few decades ago replacing sperm samples for their own sperm, without imagining that one day home DNA tests would be possible or common and their secret revealed." Said Cantor.
"Nowadays, with the ease and availability of DNA testing, to do something like this is not only a blatant violation of doctor-patient trust and a betrayal of medical ethics, but also blatant stupidity."
Will the availability of home tests reduce the incidence of infertility scams?
A woman taking a DNA sample herself (illustration: shutterstock)
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The motive behind this phenomenon is also unclear.
In some cases it may have been a solution to the lack of samples and sperm donations or their lack of economic accessibility, in other cases - intoxication of power and deviation.
Or as Cantor puts it: "It's either the power that corrupts, or the money."
"The best explanation imaginable is a situation where the patient's semen samples did not lead to pregnancies, so the doctor decided to help himself. The darkest explanation is a case of a doctor who wanted to produce dozens of offspring in his image. Maybe the truth is somewhere between these two extremes," she said. teasing.
The phenomenon of infertility has led to unique legislation in some U.S. states. For example, in Indiana and California, using unauthorized semen is a criminal offense. In the same clinic, under these laws, victims have the right to sue those responsible for the injustice done to them.
The law does not keep pace with technology
Recently, more cases of infertility scams have also been discovered in Vermont and Connecticut. Even in these cases as in the case of Roolet, the trigger for exposing fertility scams was a home kit for DNA testing. But according to Cantor, the law does not always keep pace with technology, and despite dedicated legislation in some U.S. states, in many countries victims of fraud are forced to find creative solutions to get justice. "Sometimes the cause of action is not as appropriate as a glove," says Cantor. “There were people who filed lawsuits for medical malpractice, breach of contract, causing mental distress and the like. "They tried to find some of the grounds in the law that could also suit their situation."
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