PANTS ON FIRE

IVF Doctor Lied About Office Fire to Cover Up Fertility Fraud, Lawsuit Says

A new lawsuit claims a Nevada OB/GYN secretly inseminated a patient with his own sperm and made up convoluted lies to cover it up

A Nevada fertility doctor told his patient her sperm donor records burned up in a fire rather than tell her the truth—that he had inseminated himself with his own sperm, a new lawsuit claims. The suit was filed by Gayle Fedele, a fertility patient who says Dr. Joseph Plautz inseminated her with what he said was sperm from a Wyoming sperm bank on June 17, 1984, resulting in the birth of her twin son and daughter. The suit claims her daughter, Allison Vece, also saw Plautz as her gynecologist for years, unaware that he was her biological father. The family allegedly did not discover this until March 2021, when Vece’s twin brother took a home DNA test that revealed several half-sibling’s with the last name “Plautz.” Vece then also took several home DNA tests that “confirmed that Ms. Vece had numerous half-siblings who are Dr. Plautz’s biological children,” the complaint states. Plautz died in 2015, so the family is suing his estate and former hospital for damages.