Daily Star
A doctor at a fertility clinic has agreed to a $10 million [£7.1m] payout after DNA tests showed he had used his own sperm to fertilise at least 17 women without their knowledge.
Dr. Norman Barwin was a fertility specialist at Ottawa General Hospital in Canada before moving on to a private clinic.
Tests have shown that Barwin did not use the sperm he was supposed to in the conception of at least 97 babies.
In 17 cases he allegedly used his own sperm, and the remaining 80 children may never know who their fathers are.
A law firm acting for one of the families, Nelligan Law, said the settlement was “groundbreaking”, NBC News reports.
A statement from the company read: “The settlement of the class action provides compensation to those patients and their children where the DNA of the children is not as was intended by the parents at the time of the artificial insemination performed by Barwin.
It also provides compensation to former patients who had entrusted their semen with Barwin either for safe-keeping or for a specific intended use, but which was used by Barwin in the insemination of another patient, and which resulted in offspring.”
One couple, Davina and Daniel Dixon, didn’t realise for decades that Daniel’s sperm hadn’t been used in the conception of their daughter Rebecca. It was only when their daughter questioned where her eye colour had come from that Davina became “concerned” and asked her family doctor for a DNA test.
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