Posted on 07/10/2004 7:51:28 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
(Trumbull-WTNH, July 9, 2004 6:00 PM) _ It was the moment a Trumbull woman had dreamed about most of her life, but that dream has turned into a nightmare because of a medical mistake. She was impregnated with the wrong sperm.
For years Laura Howard and her fiance wanted to have a baby. She had been through the insemination process twice before. Each time it failed. In May she went to a Bridgeport fertility clinic to try again. This time she got pregnant, but she claims it's with the wrong man's sperm.
"I was just distraught and in shock."
It should be a happy time for 40-year-old Laura Howard of Trumbull. After five years of trying to have a child with her fiance, she is two months pregnant.
Instead, she is a lawyer's office with friends by her side for support. Howard claims something went terribly wrong with the insemination process at the Infertility Institute in Bridgeport and she's planning on suing her doctor.
"I had the procedure done and was told immediately following that the wrong sperm specimen was supplied. It was not that of my partner's."
And there was another shock for the African American couple. Howard says the sperm belonged to a white man.
According to Howard, fertility specialist Dr. Anthony Santomauro immediately tried to convince her to terminate the pregnancy, But Howard is keeping it. She feels it may be her last chance at motherhood.
"The race is unimportant and I want this child to be happy and I want this child to grow and feel complete and whole."
News Channel 8 tried to reach Dr. Santomauro for comment but he was not in today.
Laura Howard says the whole mixup is right there in her medical file.
"It says the site tech had advised the doctor that sperm sample given was the wrong sperm sample for the patient."
Howard worries about the medical history of the man she calls the unwitting donor. But because of privacy laws Howard says Dr. Santomauro has refused to release his health records so she plans on filing a lawsuit.
"I do not have a clue of their background. Does he have hepatitis? Does he have HIV?
Despite the troubling situation Laura is determined to move forward.
"I will go through with my pregnancy and I will have my child. And I will be a happy mother on my delivery day. But I really would like to know and need to know what I and this child are facing health-wise for the future."
The Department of Public Health says Dr. Anthony Santomauro has no complaints or actions on file against him.
Howard says they don't want or need to know the name of the man who's sperm was used. They just want his medical history. In order to obtain those records Howard's lawyer, Bruce Jacobs, told us they are planning to file a lawsuit next week.
I guess this was before the Internet. Sorry to get you upset. But I think you're over-reacting, unless you happen to be the white man who... oh never mind.
Be careful what you ask for ;-)
From cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/07/23/sperm.donor.ap/index.html
Sperm donor must pay child support
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A state appeals court ruled that a verbal agreement between a woman and her sperm donor was invalid, and ordered the man to pay child support for the woman's twins.
The three-judge panel ruled Thursday that the deal between Joel McKiernan and Ivonne Ferguson -- in which McKiernan donated his sperm and would not be obligated to pay any support -- was unenforceable because of "legal, equitable and moral principles."
Despite an agreement that appeared to be a binding contract, the father is obligated to provide financial support, the court decided.
"It is the interest of the children we hold most dear,"' wrote Senior Judge Patrick Tamalia.
McKiernan's attorney said he may appeal.
The decision could have implications for sperm and egg donors who expect anonymity, said Arthur Caplan, a professor and medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Anybody who is a sperm donor ought to understand that their identity could be made known to any child that's produced, and they could be seen by the courts as the best place to go to make sure the child has adequate financial support," he said Friday.
According to the trial judge's opinion, Ferguson and McKiernan met while working together and had a two-year affair. The relationship waned by late 1993, when Ferguson convinced McKiernan to act as a sperm donor with no responsibility for any child born as a result, the opinion said.
McKiernan, who has paid up to $1,520 a month in support since losing the case at trial, said he was not pleased with the ruling, but declined to comment further.
Ferguson's lawyer, Elizabeth Hoffman, said there was never evidence of an agreement between the two in which McKiernan would not have to pay any support.
"There was no evidence except his word and her word and it was a matter of credibility," he said.
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