Deception From Fertility Doctors
Mayra A. Palencia
The City College of New York
Abstract
This essay reviews the ethical situation of the lack of autonomy patients had by fertility doctors in the article “Their Mothers Chose Donor Sperm. The Doctors Used Their Owen” written by Jacqueline Mroz, posted in The New York Times on August 21, 2019. Fertility doctors falsely used their power and fathered children without the consent of their patients. Some argue that laws can deter nurses and doctors from working in the fertility field, but others feel like that they should be held accountable for their actions even if it was done mistakenly.
Deception From Fertility Doctors
We put all our trust on our physicians, even blindly because we believe that they know what is best for us and our health, but what happens when a physician breaks that trust we have with them? In recent years many cases have surfaced of fertility specialist using their power to undermine what their patients wanted. In the article “Their Mothers Chose Donor Sperm. The Doctors Used Their Owen” written by Jacqueline Mroz, posted in The New York Times on August 21, 2019 discusses how women have come forward with accusations of their fertility doctors using their own sperm to impregnate them without their knowledge. This topic opened a debate as to how should these specialists be tried in court. Some believe that they deserve a severe punishment for using their power to deceive women, others believe that they did this in favor of the patient to increase the chance of them getting pregnant. Especially at a time where frozen sperm was not a recommended medical standard up until the 1980s. This ethical issue has become a national and worldwide problem which has shaped the lives of many women and their families through deception from the people they trusted.
Eve Wiley is one of the many women that was by the deceit of fertility doctors. Her biological father was not the sperm donor her mom, Margo was made to believe. Margo Williams donor was actually her fertility physician. Mrs. Williams went to Dr. Kim McMorries when she found out her husband was infertile. Dr. McMorries promised her that he had found a donor through a sperm bank in California. She was horrified when her daughter took a DNA test and found that her biological father was not a sperm donor in California, in fact it was Dr. McMoorries (Mroz, 2019). More and more of these cases has surfaced due to consumer DNA testing, and even though it is revolting what these doctors have done, it is important for people to find out what is actually happening.
Dr. Jody Madeira, professor at Indiana University has found 20 cases in the United State and also abroad. Dr. Jan Karbaat, deceived women who visited his clinic and fathered 56 children throughout his career. Dr. Norman Barwin, from Ottawa had also used his sperm on 11 women without their knowledge, and also inseminated women with wrong donors. Another specialist accused for fertility fraud is Dr. Donald Cline from Indianapolis who used his sperm on at lest three dozen women between the 70s and 80s. As of now, with DNA testing, he has fathered 61 people through his career. These doctors were not tried for their deception and wrongfully use of their power (Mroz, 2019). Knowing all these cases exist can help bring consequences to those who abused their power since there seems to be very little done to these terrible doctors. they have not served time for their dishonesty against these women.
Dr. Jan Karbaat was forced to close his practice but died at the age of 89 and was not charged on any accounts. The New York Times reached out to his family, but they undermined the actions stating these cases were decades old, as if the reason for their place in time didn’t have a significant impact on the lives of the women who were betrayed by their specialist. Dr. Cline was charged for obstruction of justice charges and lying to state investigators, but not for his deceitfulness. He surrendered his medical license and was only given a one-year suspension sentence (Mroz, 2019), and sadly other specialists have not been prosecuted for their horrendous actions. This is due to there not being a law at that time that protected these women from what was going on. Even though a law should have existed protecting women’s reproductions rights, just only in May 2019, Indiana passed a law that made this action a felony. Patients are now able to sue their doctors for it. This has also urged other states to take a stance against fertility fraud, and in June, Texas created its own fertility fraud law that is stricter than the rest. It categorizes fertility fraud as sexual assault, and any medical practitioner caught doing fertility fraud must register as sex offenders (Mroz, 2019). This law has caused a stir in the medical community, and also outside of it. Some are for this law, and others believe it can be harmful to future of fertility doctors and nurses.
There are individuals that believe this law is too extreme, and it can deter fertility doctors from practicing, especially if a mix up occurs. Judith Daar, dean of the Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University believes that his law can be problematic because a doctor or nurse can be convicted for sexual assault if they accidently use the wrong sperm in a mix-up (Mroz, 2019) Human error is something that can occur, but human error should not be used as an excuse. Doctors and nurses should be more careful and having these laws will ensure the safety of patient’s autonomy and rights from specialist that use their sperm for malicious intent. Ms. Klick, a nurse and Texas Legislator is one of the people that believe this sentencing is appropriate for those who commit fertility fraud. She believes that it is a form of rape because there is no consent of the genetic material that is being used, especially since the patient is penetrated with that medical device to insert the sperm. The reason as to why doctors have used their own sperm varies and Dr. Madeira, a law professor believes some can be attributed to narcissistic attitudes, mental health issues, or even being attracted to these women, which goes against what a doctor stands for (Mroz, 2019).
We live in an age where people are challenging medical practitioners more than before especially when it comes to ethical issues. Before people believed that medical practitioners did what was best for their patients and may not have challenged them. In the case of fertility fraud some patients were unware of what was being done to them and lived a significant part of their lives with this dishonesty from a person they trusted instinctively. Laws are being created to protect patients from such things, and even if there is a change in how things are seen during different points in life, protection of a patients right comes above everything else.
Reference
Mroz, J. (2019, August 21). Their Mothers Chose Donor Sperm. The Doctors Used Their Own.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/health/sperm-donors-fraud- doctors.html?searchResultPosition=20
