First fertility fraud lawsuit filed in Kentucky

The first fertility fraud lawsuit in Kentucky has been filed against a doctor who used his own sperm, by one of his patients who campaigned for the recent change in the law there.

Susan Crowder, a patient of fertility specialist Dr Marvin Yussman, had made a complaint to the Kentucky Medical Licensure Board following the discovery he had inseminated her using his own sperm. The complaint was rejected and Dr Yussman kept his medical licence. Crowder then campaigned to make fertility fraud, where a doctor uses their own sperm to inseminate a patient without their consent, illegal in Kentucky. She did this with help from campaigners from neighbouring state Indiana, which was the first state to make fertility fraud a crime. A total of nine states in the USA have now passed laws to prohibit fertility fraud.

Crowder's attorney, Amy Wheatley of Stein Law Office stated, 'After being rebuffed by the medical licensing board, Susan Crowder advocated for the passage of Kentucky's Fraudulent Assisted Reproduction Law. This law allows her and other victims to hold rogue physicians liable for their unlawful conduct.'

The discovery was made when Crowder's daughter discovered she had half-siblings after doing an Ancestry.com test in 2019. One of the half-siblings told them about their own discovery that their mother's fertility doctor, Dr Yussman, was their genetic father. Crowder had visited fertility doctor, Dr Yussman, for fertility treatment in 1975 at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Kentucky, following her then-husband being diagnosed as infertile. Dr Yussman had told the couple he 'exclusively' used medical students for donor sperm.

When presenting evidence to the Kentucky Medical Licensure Board in 2021 Dr Yussman admitted to inseminating Crowder and 'about half a dozen' other women with his own sperm. The board said there was 'insufficient evidence' that he had violated the Kentucky Medical Practice Act, recommended that he receive a 'letter of concern' and allowed him to keep his medical licence.

As a result, Crowder has fought for a change in the legislation in Kentucky. The bill was enacted last year, and now Crowder is suing both Yussman and the University of Louisville under the new law.

She said: 'People say she just wants money. No, I want accountability.'

'I want this man to acknowledge that what he did, and even if he never acknowledges it I want somebody else to tell him that what he did was wrong.'

The lawsuit asks for compensatory and punitive damages from both Dr Yussman, and his employer, the University of Louisville, under the new fertility fraud law and for breach of contract and medical malpractice. It also asks that he disclose the identity of every child he conceived, due to the risks posed if they unwittingly have children with half-siblings.