A man has filed a personal injury lawsuit against a fertility clinic for using his sperm without his consent, and producing twins that he is now financially responsible for, as reported by Click 2 Houston.
The plaintiff, J.P., 36, said, "Actually, I couldn't believe it could be done. I was very, very devastated. I couldn't believe that this fertility clinic could actually do this without my consent, or without my even being there."
J.P. alleges that his sperm was stolen by his ex-girlfriend, who then brought the samples to a Houston fertility clinic, when he had no intentions of starting a family.
J.P. further alleges that his religious beliefs do not allow him to visit, or participate, in any type of artificial insemination.
Three months after J.P. broke up with his girlfriend a mailed receipt, listing J.P. as a donor, alerted him to the alleged plot - he now had two boys as a direct result of his inseminated sperm obtained by the Advanced Fertility Center of Texas.
The lawsuit states that J.P. "was listed as the 'patient' on the receipt even though he had never been to (the clinic) nor ever sought treatment for male infertility."
After giving birth to the twin boys, J.P.'s former girlfriends sued him for child support - using blood tests to confirm that J.P. was indeed the father.
J.P. said, "That's a violation of myself, to what I believe in, to my religion, and just to my manhood."
Claiming that a medical condition involving fibroids prevented her from becoming pregnant, J.P.'s ex always required that he wear a condom during sexual encounters. Of their trysts J.P. said, "...she would take the condom and ask me to discard it. And usually, a male would discard their own property, but she would always take the condom and she would run off out of the room and I just didn't think anything of it. And I didn't think that anyone could use a condom and bring it to a clinic to get an in vitro."
Jason Gibson, in representing J.P. as legal council said, "It's not what you're thinking when you're in a relationship. That's not what most people are thinking, that their partner is going to get a special condom, use that condom as soon as you're done having sex, run off to the fertility clinic to go have an IVF procedure. That's certainly not what my client was thinking."
Danny Sheena, the attorney representing the fertility clinic, said that the lawsuit was both "suspect" and "disingenuous" as the father signed consent forms and information sheets. Sheena continued, "That's the procedure of the clinic. Those procedures were followed and we did obtain a consent from the donor as well as his blood sample."
Yet Sheena could not confirm whether J.P. had actually come into the clinic or if his ex just fabricated the forms. He said, "When patients provide information like (the ex-girlfriend), we rely on truthful and accurate information."
Allegedly all of the procedures were billed to J.P.'s insurance carrier. Sheena said, "We do know that we do have his blood work, we do know that his insurance was billed for it, and we do know that his credit card was used to pay for (some of) the visits."
J.P. claims that he thought his ex was using his partner benefits for her fibroid condition, so he allowed her to sign onto his insurance.
Gibson concluded, "I hope that an indirect result of this lawsuit will be that these 'one stop baby shop' type places that will take your money and get you pregnant without the male's consent will take note and perhaps change the way they do business in the future."
The mother is not named in the lawsuit.
If you have been injured by the actions of another person you need to contact a personal injury lawyer to file a lawsuit. Oftentimes financial awards are made to compensate for your damages.