‘SICK’

Doctor Secretly Used His Own Sperm to Impregnate Fertility Patient: Lawsuit

The family said they only found out after uploading DNA results to genealogy databases.

A retired OB-GYN was sued Thursday by an Idaho woman who claims he secretly used his own sperm to impregnate her when she sought fertility treatment. Sharon Hayes, 67, alleges that Dr. David R. Claypool violated Washington’s medical malpractice statute requiring that doctors receive informed consent from patients for treatment, as well as the Consumer Protection Act. According to the suit filed in Spokane County Superior Court, Hayes went to Claypool in 1989 for artificial insemination treatment using sperm from anonymous college donors. Her daughter, Brianna, was born in 1990. It wasn’t until last year that Brianna uploaded DNA test results to genealogy databases 23andMe and MyHeritage, and was surprised to find she had several half-siblings in Spokane—all of whose DNA allegedly matched Claypool’s. “I couldn’t believe it,” Sharon Hayes said when she found out. “I was sick. I felt like a science experiment.” Claypool told The Spokesman-Review he didn’t know Hayes and was unaware of the lawsuit.