A young family after the birth of a child (symbolic image): In the US state of Colorado, a doctor was sentenced for fertility fraud
Photo: Daniel Karmann/ dpa
In the US state of Colorado, three families were awarded almost nine million US dollars as part of a court case.
They had accused a fertility doctor of using his own sperm to inseminate three mothers who had requested anonymous donors.
The jury returned its verdict late Wednesday (local time) and found that Dr.
Paul B. Jones and his clinic, Women's Health Care of Western Colorado, are liable, the Denver Post reports Friday.
Neither the convicted doctor personally nor the clinic wanted to comment on the verdict.
Victims sued Jones and his clinic in 2019, accusing him of using his own sperm in seven artificial insemination surgeries between 1979 and 1985.
The children born of artificial insemination learned as adults through genealogy services that they had a common bond - Jones.
Some families settled out of court with the doctor, said Maia Emmons-Boring, one of the plaintiffs who brought the case to court.
The Texan found out more than three years ago through a home DNA test that the man she'd called her father all her life wasn't her biological father.
"Our goal was never money," she said.
"I wanted to see him in court."
The court ruling against Jones followed a $5 million judgment against a Vermont doctor last month.
The two decisions set a precedent for fertility fraud cases across the country, said Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor and fertility fraud expert.
"These two verdicts, side by side, show that the public opposes this behavior," Madeira said.
"They know that was never the norm, and they find it grotesque."
The Colorado verdict came days after the state legislature introduced legislation to better protect those conceived by sperm donors.
jso/AP