Patient sues fertility doctor who allegedly used own sperm in treatment

A US woman is suing her fertility doctor, claiming he used his own sperm to impregnate her 34 years ago.

Sharon Hayes sought fertility care from Dr David Claypool in Spokane, Washington, in 1989, and gave birth to her daughter Brianna the following year as a result of donor insemination. After taking a consumer DNA test last year, Brianna discovered Dr Claypool is amost certainly her genetic father.

'I couldn't believe it,' Hayes told the Seattle Times. 'I was sick. I felt like a science experiment.'

She has now filed a lawsuit against him at the Spokane County Superior Court for infringing the state's medical malpractice law by using his own sperm in her fertility treatments.

Hayes had requested an anonymous donor, and Dr Claypool assured her that the donor would be matched to her husband, in terms of physical characteristics such as hair colour. He also said that the donor would undergo genetic screening for health concerns.

He then charged Hayes $100 in cash for each of her fertility treatments, explaining that the money was going to the college students who were donating their sperm.

Brianna submitted her DNA to consumer DNA testing company 23andMe to try to understand her health issues. In her childhood, she had leukemia and as an adult has required five hip surgeries, and has a sleep disorder, none of which run in her mother's family.

Instead, she learned that her DNA matched to Dr Claypool, and that she had at least 16 half-siblings in Washington state. She has since made contact with some of her half siblings.

Dr Claypool, who stopped practising medicine in 2005, denied knowing the Hayes family and said that he knew nothing about the allegations. He told the Seattle Times that 'this is the first I've heard of anything in 40 years'.

Hayes said she is taking Dr Claypool to court because 'he just needs to be held accountable'.

A number of US states have passed so called so-called 'fertility fraud' laws in response to other cases of this nature coming to light (see BioNews 998, 999, 1172). However, Washington state currently has no laws prohibiting doctors from secretly using their own sperm during fertility procedures, and a bill to create one was unsuccessful.

Brianna has said she supports her mother. 'I've had to come to terms with the idea that someone committed this act against my mom. And that I'm a product of it', she told the Seattle Times.