March 19, 2024

Oregon doctor sues over ‘irresponsible’ use of his sperm by IVF clinic  

After 30 years, he discovered that he had fathered at least 17 children

Dr. Bryce Cleary and his biological daughter, Allysen Allee

In a familiar but evergreen story, an Oregon doctor has filed a US$5.25 million lawsuit against Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU )for misusing sperm donations he made 30 years ago.

Dr Bryce Cleary, now 53, claims that he made the donations when he was a first-year medical student with very specific conditions: that the sperm be used to produce no more than five children and that all of the intending mothers came from outside Oregon.

But to his consternation people researching on ancestry.com are now starting to contact him because he might be their biological father. Instead of 5 sperm donor offspring, it appears that he has at least 17.

Dr Cleary has denounced OHSU’s fertility clinic as “incredibly irresponsible.” “The idea that you can produce that many children from one donor and throw them all in the same region?” Cleary told The Oregonian. “There has got to be some reforms. I can’t control an industry, but I can sure stand up and say, ‘This isn’t cool.’”

After donating his sperm, Dr Cleary married – he now has three children of his own, plus one adopted child. It seems that some of his offspring have already crossed paths in Oregon.

One of them, 25-year-old Allysen Allee, appeared with him at a press conference. She told the media: “It feels like OHSU really didn’t take into consideration the fact that they were creating humans. They were reckless with this, and it feels like it was just money and numbers to them.”

Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge

Creative commons
https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/FB_oregon_3232.jpg
oregon
sperm donation