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Oregon doctor sues university, claiming that “irresponsible” use of his sperm created at least 17 children

BMJ 2019; 367 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6082 (Published 17 October 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;367:l6082
  1. Owen Dyer
  1. Montreal

A US doctor who donated sperm to his university’s fertility clinic while a medical student is suing Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) for $5.25m (£4.05m; €4.72m), alleging that it broke promises to limit the number of children produced with it to five.

Bryce Cleary said that the university also promised not to give the sperm to parents in the Pacific Northwest region. But a DNA search that he ran on Ancestry.com last year revealed that at least 17 children had been born from his donated sperm, most of them in Oregon, he said.

Cleary, 53, appeared at a press conference with one of the 17—his biological daughter, 25 year old Allysen Allee, whom he had only recently met. The family resemblance was evident.

“There needs to be some control,” he said. “To flood a zone with a bunch of genetic material is completely irresponsible.”

Allee said, “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.”

“Dozens of cousins”

Cleary and several classmates were approached by the OHSU fertility clinic for sperm donations in 1989, in their first year of medical school. He is unsure of how many times he donated sperm but says that it was “several.” He was paid $40 each time.

For the next 29 years, working as a doctor in a small town, he thought no more of it. But two of his daughters then found each other using Ancestry.com and, combining the data with hospital inquiries, identified him as their father. Cleary himself then checked Ancestry.com and identified 17 young adults who he says are his biological children. There may be more who did not show up in his search, he said.

At least two of his sperm donor offspring had passed through the same schools as his family’s four children, he said, adding, “My grandkids are going to have to get DNA kits before they seriously date.”

Allee said, “I’m expecting my third child right now, and the idea of my children having dozens and dozens of cousins that will be their ages and in the area is concerning.”

Personal obligation

A spokeswoman for the university said, “OHSU treats any allegation of misconduct with the gravity it deserves. In light of our patient privacy obligations and the confidentiality of protected health information, we cannot comment on this case.”

She added, “OHSU stopped recruiting anonymous donors and collecting anonymous sperm samples in 2011.”

Cleary said that he would never have participated in the programme without the promises to limit the number of offspring to five and to use the sperm only outside the Pacific Northwest. He is suing the university for $250 000 for each child he knows about, plus $1m for economic damages.

In March an Illinois woman accepted $250 000 to drop a suit against a New York sperm bank after claiming that her two sons, who have autism, were part of a cluster descended from a single donor who had concealed his own developmental problems.1

Cleary said that he was wrestling with the “moral, legal, ethical, and personal obligation” he now feels towards his children, suggesting that he might feel obliged to donate a kidney if one fell sick.

“There has got to be some reform,” he said. “I can’t control an industry, but I can sure stand up and say, ‘This isn’t cool.’”

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