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Ex-fertility Doctor, Former Mission & Temple President Facing Lawsuit


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22 hours ago, readstoomuch said:

I tried to give you the other side of the story.  Our family also has multiple couples with infertility problems.  My next door catholic neighbors had fertility problems and spent a fortune to finally conceive four children.  His main desire may have been to help them have a baby.  So,  my story is that I had significant interactions with someone, including in some tough situations and he always responded in the way that the Lord would want-my opinion.  Then this happens.  How do you square that?  Especially if you know him and his wife.  I don't exactly know, but I think it is important for someone to point out that he isn't a total loser of a person.  

They had three or four children when I knew them.  

This seems all too familiar. He was such an outstanding member, no matter how unethical and dishonest his actions it is unfortunate that he got caught.  I am sure his dishonesty and deception was done with the best of intentions. Meanwhile the victims have to deal with his dishonesty. Let’s hope the lawyers don’t start digging up dirt on how unfit the parents are. 

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11 hours ago, webbles said:

I keep hearing stories about this type of behavior by fertility doctors.  It almost makes me think that fertility doctors in the early days just did this as a normal thing.  Maybe all children conceived through IVF back then should have their DNA tested and see how common this behavior was?

Here's a list of 5 stories that I could quickly find dealing with this behavior around the world:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9193014/British-man-fathere...

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/13/health/fertility-doctor-i...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4504648/Head-Dutch-c...

http://www.rebelcircus.com/blog/fertility-doctor-used-sperm-...

https://news.sky.com/story/dna-of-fertility-clinic-doctor-ac...

Some sort of perverted "god complex," then?

-Smac

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On ‎4‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 12:22 PM, phaedrus ut said:

It's well known he was Mormon.  IIRC one of the victims testified that since she and her husband were Jewish they wanted a Jewish donor and Jacobson testified that his sperm qualified because he was Mormon. 

That is too funny - talking to a Jew and saying, "Well, I qualify as a Jew because I am Mormon."  This cracked me up.  Big, big stretch there, brother.  

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On 4/5/2018 at 8:57 AM, LoudmouthMormon said:

Maybe I'm missing it, but I don't see Wiki stating he is LDS...

 Dr. Cecil Jacobson was a Mormon.  There was even a movie made about him (where in it states it that he was Mormon):

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/336172/BABYMAKER-IS-JUST-PLAIN-BAD.html

And it is also mentioned that he is Mormon in the documentary made about him:

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/34571843814/the-sperminator 

Edited by ALarson
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13 hours ago, webbles said:

I keep hearing stories about this type of behavior by fertility doctors.  It almost makes me think that fertility doctors in the early days just did this as a normal thing.  Maybe all children conceived through IVF back then should have their DNA tested and see how common this behavior was?

Here's a list of 5 stories that I could quickly find dealing with this behavior around the world:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9193014/British-man-fathere...

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/13/health/fertility-doctor-i...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4504648/Head-Dutch-c...

http://www.rebelcircus.com/blog/fertility-doctor-used-sperm-...

https://news.sky.com/story/dna-of-fertility-clinic-doctor-ac...

I am creeped out by this guy, but I don't really know why specifically.  Even when a couple describes a specific set of characteristics about the anonymous sperm donor it does not mean that the DNA received has only those characteristics.  It really is a crap shoot for what DNA is passed on.

Couple comes in, desperate for a child, gets child!  Hooray!!!  Is it the fact that they find out exactly who the sperm donor is? What damages have been inflicted?  Does the child have some disease directly tied to the donor DNA?  So the only problem really is that they find out who is the donor and nothing else.  

I am getting the picture that we have a lot of people who like to set standards for the behavior of everyone else, but don't begin to use the same standard to judge others.  For example, you receive a gift from someone and don't use it.  Another couple would really like that gift and could use it - in fact, it would make them extremely happy.  You give them the gift and they are overjoyed.  Later, the couple finds out that you did not really buy the gift specifically for them, but you got the gift from someone else and re-gifted it.  At the point, the couple screams to high heavens they have been deceived by the couple that gave them the gift that they love.  Exactly what is the damage?  None.  However, there is "emotionally distress" caused by the fact they found out you did not really buy it for them.  How many have re-gifted a gift?  How many have given away items we just don't want or cannot use?  

Dang, how about count your blessings?

And, doctor, just don't. It is really creepy.  Of course, for me the entire thing gets to be a little creepy.  No, I don't want the doctor's sperm I want someone I don't know who just comes in and masturbates for money - I want their sperm.  Seriously!  There is not lovely picture here....except for the fact that a couple actually became parents and love their child, which is beautiful.  

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3 minutes ago, Storm Rider said:

I am creeped out by this guy, but I don't really know why specifically.  Even when a couple describes a specific set of characteristics about the anonymous sperm donor it does not mean that the DNA received has only those characteristics.  It really is a crap shoot for what DNA is passed on.

Couple comes in, desperate for a child, gets child!  Hooray!!!  Is it the fact that they find out exactly who the sperm donor is? What damages have been inflicted?  Does the child have some disease directly tied to the donor DNA?  So the only problem really is that they find out who is the donor and nothing else.  

I am getting the picture that we have a lot of people who like to set standards for the behavior of everyone else, but don't begin to use the same standard to judge others.  For example, you receive a gift from someone and don't use it.  Another couple would really like that gift and could use it - in fact, it would make them extremely happy.  You give them the gift and they are overjoyed.  Later, the couple finds out that you did not really buy the gift specifically for them, but you got the gift from someone else and re-gifted it.  At the point, the couple screams to high heavens they have been deceived by the couple that gave them the gift that they love.  Exactly what is the damage?  None.  However, there is "emotionally distress" caused by the fact they found out you did not really buy it for them.  How many have re-gifted a gift?  How many have given away items we just don't want or cannot use?  

Dang, how about count your blessings?

And, doctor, just don't. It is really creepy.  Of course, for me the entire thing gets to be a little creepy.  No, I don't want the doctor's sperm I want someone I don't know who just comes in and masturbates for money - I want their sperm.  Seriously!  There is not lovely picture here....except for the fact that a couple actually became parents and love their child, which is beautiful.  

Dang...how about how you got those blessings???  You are up a tree in your own religion here..

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On 4/4/2018 at 5:35 PM, carbon dioxide said:

A DNA test will confirm if this is true or not and then we can go from there.

Or, we can just go away and forget all about this.

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23 minutes ago, Bernard Gui said:

Or, we can just go away and forget all about this.

That's certainly not easy to do for those involved (and even for those who find what he did to be wrong).  Many will probably follow the case to see how it turns out.

Hopefully some good will come out of holding this doctor accountable for his actions.  It should at least help to dissuade other fertility doctors from making the same unethical mistake and deciding to use their own sperm to impregnate their patients who trust them.

Edited by ALarson
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3 hours ago, Storm Rider said:

I am creeped out by this guy, but I don't really know why specifically.  Even when a couple describes a specific set of characteristics about the anonymous sperm donor it does not mean that the DNA received has only those characteristics.  It really is a crap shoot for what DNA is passed on.

Couple comes in, desperate for a child, gets child!  Hooray!!!  Is it the fact that they find out exactly who the sperm donor is? What damages have been inflicted?  Does the child have some disease directly tied to the donor DNA?  So the only problem really is that they find out who is the donor and nothing else.  

I am getting the picture that we have a lot of people who like to set standards for the behavior of everyone else, but don't begin to use the same standard to judge others.  For example, you receive a gift from someone and don't use it.  Another couple would really like that gift and could use it - in fact, it would make them extremely happy.  You give them the gift and they are overjoyed.  Later, the couple finds out that you did not really buy the gift specifically for them, but you got the gift from someone else and re-gifted it.  At the point, the couple screams to high heavens they have been deceived by the couple that gave them the gift that they love.  Exactly what is the damage?  None.  However, there is "emotionally distress" caused by the fact they found out you did not really buy it for them.  How many have re-gifted a gift?  How many have given away items we just don't want or cannot use?  

Dang, how about count your blessings?

And, doctor, just don't. It is really creepy.  Of course, for me the entire thing gets to be a little creepy.  No, I don't want the doctor's sperm I want someone I don't know who just comes in and masturbates for money - I want their sperm.  Seriously!  There is not lovely picture here....except for the fact that a couple actually became parents and love their child, which is beautiful.  

You sue to demonstrate that this is not acceptable behavior and hope that the threat of being found out and sued is a deterrent to others. 

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Genetic information is bringing up all kinds of new situations.  One from a few years ago. Cold case, no leads.  Get a court order or submit DNA from a crime scene to Ancestry.  See if you get any clues.  Another one.  Suspect can’t be induced to submit DNA, but the suspect has a first degree relative on Ancestry to compare to.  What can be good for geaneology might be bad for a criminal.

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9 hours ago, Jeanne said:

Dang...how about how you got those blessings???  You are up a tree in your own religion here..

Jeanne, more than anything this sounds more like the "eweee" factor (that we all seem to have) than anything else.  Couple wanted baby, they got baby.....and now what?  You aren't happy with the baby or is it something else.  

If anyone has gone through fertility problems it is not a fun process.  I still remember when Shauna's OBGYN, who also acted as our initial fertility guy, called me up one day and said, "Well, you know you got 50% are are nonmotile 25% that (cannot remember the word off hand) messed up, and the rest are just really slow. So, you are basically sterile.  He may have been great with women, but let me tell you he sucked talking to men.  It is always fun to say, "Here you go, we need this sample, go right there and then bring back in the bag."  That just does not work for little Mormon guy that did all he could to live the law of Chastity.  I went home and then had to hurry back.  When a couple goes through this kind of trials - I promise you, we are just happy to have the baby.  I don't care where it came from.

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In this Ottawa Dr. case this goes back to the 1970's, lawyers are requesting anybody who was a patient of his to get a DNA test. It's real bad when mothers were told their kids are from their late father's sperm but actually.................they all look mysteriously like the Dr...................

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1 hour ago, Storm Rider said:

Jeanne, more than anything this sounds more like the "eweee" factor (that we all seem to have) than anything else.  Couple wanted baby, they got baby.....and now what?  You aren't happy with the baby or is it something else.  

If anyone has gone through fertility problems it is not a fun process.  I still remember when Shauna's OBGYN, who also acted as our initial fertility guy, called me up one day and said, "Well, you know you got 50% are are nonmotile 25% that (cannot remember the word off hand) messed up, and the rest are just really slow. So, you are basically sterile.  He may have been great with women, but let me tell you he sucked talking to men.  It is always fun to say, "Here you go, we need this sample, go right there and then bring back in the bag."  That just does not work for little Mormon guy that did all he could to live the law of Chastity.  I went home and then had to hurry back.  When a couple goes through this kind of trials - I promise you, we are just happy to have the baby.  I don't care where it came from.

It sounds like it may be the daughter more than the parents.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kelli-rowlette-dna-fertility-doctor-dad-gerald-mortimer_us_5ac55f80e4b056a8f59812f0

"The results were more surprising than she expected: The 36-year-old discovered she had been conceived via fertility treatments, something her parents never told her.

But Rowlette and her parents were shocked by another finding from the results: Her real father was actually the fertility doctor who performed the artificial insemination, according to The Washington Post.

Now Rowlette and her divorced parents, Sally Ashby and Howard Fowler, are suing retired Dr. Gerald E. Mortimer and his former employer, Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates of Idaho Falls, Idaho, for $10 million.

The family filed the lawsuit in Idaho last week, accusing both parties of medical negligence, fraud, battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract, according to NPR."

"The couple had the treatment nine times during the summer of 1980, but say they didn’t know that Mortimer ― whose physical characteristics did not match Fowler ― was donating his own sperm until their daughter got her DNA results last July."

Hmm...I wonder if he broke contract because it wasn't working.  He might have even put minimal dad and mostly himself in the contribution.

-----

"The parents were “devastated,” and “struggled to cope with their own anguish and had difficulty contemplating the torment the discovery would cause their daughter when she found out,” according to the lawsuit.

Rowlette found out the truth on her own in October when she noticed Mortimer’s signature on her birth certificate."

The parents sound like they were hoping it would be dropped as they didn't tell her the result was for real, but she found out later.

Edited by Calm
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There was a fertility doctor who did the same thing in the 90's, but he fathered around 75 kids. SNL parodied it. One of the 75 kids told her dad that a girl was teasing her about him and he said, "I'll tell you something about Wendy. She's my daughter too."  :lol:

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25 minutes ago, Duncan said:

In this Ottawa Dr. case this goes back to the 1970's, lawyers are requesting anybody who was a patient of his to get a DNA test. It's real bad when mothers were told their kids are from their late father's sperm but actually.................they all look mysteriously like the Dr...................

I wonder how much in back owed child support he may owe? Professional atheletes and fertility docs need to think about this prior to following their impulses. :lol:

Edited by Exiled
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"More recently, a Canadian physician has been accused of using his own sperm to impregnate patients who were trying to conceive. A lawsuit against the doctor, Norman Barwin, said a DNA test showed a paternal half-sister relationship between the daughters of two former patients.

“When I first found out, I felt disassociated from my body and my face,” one couple’s daughter said, according to the CBC/Radio Canada. “When I’d look in the mirror, I felt like suddenly it wasn’t my face. Features about myself that I’d always liked, or just thought of as my own seemed like they might belong to someone else, and I didn’t know who that was.”

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/state/idaho/article207970659.html

Parents should probably be informed these days by their fertility doctors that the kids will be finding out if adopted or they used donor sperm to conceive so that knowing they are going to have to tell their kid eventually IS going to happen.

Edited by Calm
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I am assuming actual donors are protected from child support legally or few would donate, though how many men would actually the paperwork.

If a mother was single and had a doctor willing to go along, if the doctor operates the sperm 'bank' and thus knows dad's identity....

Anyone ever hear of this claim being made in paternity suits?  Vaguely remember TV show scamming unexpected daddies, but can't remember if this was the trick.

-----

If a doctor did not go through the usual screenings for donors, wonder if any legal protection would be invalidated.

Edited by Calm
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12 hours ago, ALarson said:

That's certainly not easy to do for those involved (and even for those who find what he did to be wrong).  Many will probably follow the case to see how it turns out.

Hopefully some good will come out of holding this doctor accountable for his actions.  It should at least help to dissuade other fertility doctors from making the same unethical mistake and deciding to use their own sperm to impregnate their patients who trust them.

Perhaps. There are so many other things of great consequence going on. We could let those involved settle things with some privacy and dignity. An acquaintance in a gay marriage is taking turns with her partner being the mother by AI. The kids do not have the same mother and have different unknown fathers. Are they brother and sister? Who knows? But, hey, they’re a family. What a world we live in.

Edited by Bernard Gui
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