Posted on 04/01/2022 10:23:17 AM PDT by libh8er
A Florida woman who accused a Vermont doctor of impregnating her with his own sperm instead of a donor’s in 1977 was awarded $5.25 million by a federal judge on Wednesday.
Cheryl Rousseau was awarded $250,000 in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages in the case against Dr John Coates III, who inseminated her with his sperm without her consent.
Cheryl’s attorney, Celeste Laramie said that the jury awarded Cheryl the amount they had requested, and that the jurors found Coates’ behavior to be ‘wrongful and offensive.’
She said: ‘The jury through its punitive damages verdict sent a message to any physicians who might think about lying to their patients or using their own semen to inseminate their patients. Such behavior will have serious consequences.’
The couple wanted a child, but Peter had undergone a vasectomy that could not be reversed. They found a donor who was a medical student that resembled Peter and ‘met specific characteristics’ Cheryl required, the lawsuit said.
The sperm donation had gone off without a hitch, the couple had thought. Until in 2018 when their child, now an adult, received a DNA test and found out Coates was her biological father.
That same year Cheryl and her husband, Peter Rousseau, sued Coates, accusing him of using his own sperm during an artificial insemination procedure in March 1977 at a hospital in Berlin, Vermont.
Coates had testified under oath during his 2019 deposition that he was not the father, and had never used his own sperm in any insemination procedures.
But once the DNA confirmed he was the genetic father of Cheryl’s child, he admitted to having used his own sperm.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Hmm surprised libs didn’t defend the doctor and further victimize the victim
Wasn’t this the subject of an old Law & Order episode?
I don’t quite get the whole thing. The couple was accepting sperm from a third party who was presumably anonymous. Until the DNA test, that is exactly what they got.
Lucky sperm club definition add -
1) Born into a wealthy family to enjoy a life of privilege and leisure regardless of how retarded you are. e.g. Hunter Biden
2) Mom awarded 5 million dollars for doctor using his own sperm during artificial insemination instead of Abby Normal.
Thought she was getting a Chris Hemsworth, but the baby came out looking like Danny Devito as the Penguin.
They had approved the designated donor.
I don’t know why a doctor would do this when an approved donor was already available.
Is there such a thing as Sperm Insurance?
Since it’s from MSN I’m surprised it didn’t have phrases like “her sperm”.
Could be the normal drive to procreate became twisted somehow, or some weird sexual thing.
Yes, at least once, probably more. Because it's happened several times. There was a case in the 90s the doctor did it many times, and it was even parodied on Saturday Night Live. And there was a case in the 2010s, where are the children using the doctor's DNA found each other on some genealogy site, after getting tested.
I think in one earlier case the doctor did it out of some kind of egomania run amok. Most doctors think they are G-d already. A lot of fertility doctors think they create life themselves.
“I don’t quite get the whole thing. The couple was accepting sperm from a third party who was presumably anonymous.”
Read the article!
Yes, it must be some ego-thing.
The ghost of Cecil Jacobson scoffs at this particular doctor and mutters: “Amateur!” :P
“I don’t know why a doctor would do this when an approved donor was already available.”
He wanted to donate it directly from his body to hers.
So there were no orphaned babies to adopt?
I have mixed feelings about it. When a couple really wants their own child but can’t conceive in the normal way, this technology can be very valuable to them.
But I’d only do it if my husband could be the father; and I’d probably go the adoption route anyway.
Was the money collected by woman or just awarded a judgement? Who pays, doctor (probably doesn’t have it) employer (may be out of business) or insurance (likely not covering fraud)?
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