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Aug 18, 2025 21:01:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2019 13:18:06 GMT
"Bryce Cleary spent the past 30 years believing he had five biological children leading their lives somewhere on the other side of the country, conceived with his donated sperm but forever anonymous.
It was 1989 when he gave his sperm to the fertility clinic at Oregon Health & Science University, where he was a first-year medical student, believing his donation would help infertile couples and advance science. The facility promised that once his sperm had conceived five babies in mothers living on the East Coast, the rest would be used for research, Cleary said at a Wednesday news conference. He had assured his wife that the donor kids were far enough away that their own four children could never run into them in their Oregon town, or unwittingly befriend them or fall in love with them.
“So you can imagine his shock,” his attorney Chris Best said at the news conference, “when, after 30 years, Dr. Cleary recently [learned] that no less than 17 children have been born from his donations” ― all of whom were born in the state of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest."
And some of those children have gone to the same schools and churches and social events — raising the possibility they met without ever knowing they were siblings.
Now, the startling discovery has led Cleary to file a $5.25 million lawsuit against OHSU on Wednesday, accusing the university of fraud....
The 17 children born from Bryce Cleary’s sperm donation — some not yet identified by name — are only the ones who have been discovered so far, largely after Cleary joined Ancestry.com in 2018. "
W/all the genetic testing out there, I doubt this will be the only case like this we hear of. Sperm clinics probably thought they could play fast & loose w/the rules, cuz "who will ever know".
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Post by Basket1lady on Oct 3, 2019 14:10:26 GMT
This was my biggest nightmare when we were going through our fertility work—unethical practices with fertility clinics. And at the time, there was an RE accused of fathering the children himself, instead of using the couple’s own sperm. Luckily, DS came out as a mini-me of DH, so there is very little doubt as to who fathered that child!
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Post by tyra on Oct 3, 2019 14:16:39 GMT
This was my biggest nightmare when we were going through our fertility work—unethical practices with fertility clinics. And at the time, there was an RE accused of fathering the children himself, instead of using the couple’s own sperm. Luckily, DS came out as a mini-me of DH, so there is very little doubt as to who fathered that child! That was DH's worry as well, not necessarily unethical practices, but a mix up. DS is a carbon copy of DH though, so there is zero doubt! |
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Post by Mel on Oct 3, 2019 14:19:31 GMT
I have a friend who's parents used a fertility doc in CA (she is 60+ yrs old). Her parents were told/thought that he used THEIR sperm/egg to do the treatments. Her parents are both dead now, but she has always been interested in genealogy so she did her DNA testing and joined Ancestry too. She knew that they had used the treatment to conceive her, and later, her brother. Imagine her shock when she started getting "hits" on her profile.
Come to find out... she has DOZENS of half siblings all over the country, some have met and they correspond with others!! And, their bio-father was the DOCTOR who did the infertility treatments!! It's a pretty crazy story. He is dead now, but he had 4 boys with his wife. No one knew anything until modern technology took over...
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Post by Basket1lady on Oct 3, 2019 14:21:05 GMT
I have a friend who's parents used a fertility doc in CA (she is 60+ yrs old). Her parents were told/thought that he used THEIR sperm/egg to do the treatments. Her parents are both dead now, but she has always been interested in genealogy so she did her DNA testing and joined Ancestry too. She knew that they had used the treatment to conceive her, and later, her brother. Imagine her shock when she started getting "hits" on her profile. Come to find out... she has DOZENS of half siblings all over the country, some have met and they correspond with others!! And, their bio-father was the DOCTOR who did the infertility treatments!! It's a pretty crazy story. He is dead now, but he had 4 boys with his wife. No one knew anything until modern technology took over... Oh, I bet this was the same RE I’d heard of. I know it was in California. |
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Post by Basket1lady on Oct 3, 2019 14:22:26 GMT
This was my biggest nightmare when we were going through our fertility work—unethical practices with fertility clinics. And at the time, there was an RE accused of fathering the children himself, instead of using the couple’s own sperm. Luckily, DS came out as a mini-me of DH, so there is very little doubt as to who fathered that child! That was DH's worry as well, not necessarily unethical practices, but a mix up. DS is a carbon copy of DH though, so there is zero doubt! We used a small clinic and they only handled one IUI at a time in clinic. So theoretically, no chance of a mix up. But I still worried! |
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Post by tyra on Oct 3, 2019 14:26:27 GMT
That was DH's worry as well, not necessarily unethical practices, but a mix up. DS is a carbon copy of DH though, so there is zero doubt! We used a small clinic and they only handled one IUI at a time in clinic. So theoretically, no chance of a mix up. But I still worried! Oh wow. We used a very large one, with multiple locations. All IVF procedures were done at the same location in the city though. It was reassuring that we saw our dish- with my name on it, them putting the embryos into the syringe thing, and then they brought it into the room. It was done on CCTV that switched to a microscope view of the embryos, so the only chance they had to mix it up would be if they dropped the syringe or something, at least after. |
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Post by Mel on Oct 3, 2019 14:26:34 GMT
I have a friend who's parents used a fertility doc in CA (she is 60+ yrs old). Her parents were told/thought that he used THEIR sperm/egg to do the treatments. Her parents are both dead now, but she has always been interested in genealogy so she did her DNA testing and joined Ancestry too. She knew that they had used the treatment to conceive her, and later, her brother. Imagine her shock when she started getting "hits" on her profile. Come to find out... she has DOZENS of half siblings all over the country, some have met and they correspond with others!! And, their bio-father was the DOCTOR who did the infertility treatments!! It's a pretty crazy story. He is dead now, but he had 4 boys with his wife. No one knew anything until modern technology took over... Oh, I bet this was the same RE I’d heard of. I know it was in California. Could be!! |
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Post by malibou on Oct 3, 2019 14:39:01 GMT
Dh was a rather active sperm donor in college. He has been told he fathered somewhere between 12 and 30 kids. His was all anonymous. Fast forward to now, and we are realizing we need to tell ds18 before he decides to do a DNA test. Holy cats is that going to open a flood gate of siblings for him, the kid whose 3rd sentence was, By the way, I don't want any brothers and sisters for Christmas and birthday. Dh really doesn't want to be found out. He would if there was any health issues in his family, but there is not. His parents and brother are all alive and healthy.
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Post by Basket1lady on Oct 3, 2019 15:21:22 GMT
We used a small clinic and they only handled one IUI at a time in clinic. So theoretically, no chance of a mix up. But I still worried! Oh wow. We used a very large one, with multiple locations. All IVF procedures were done at the same location in the city though. It was reassuring that we saw our dish- with my name on it, them putting the embryos into the syringe thing, and then they brought it into the room. It was done on CCTV that switched to a microscope view of the embryos, so the only chance they had to mix it up would be if they dropped the syringe or something, at least after. I forgotten—yes, my syringe was labeled and shown to me, too. DS is almost 23 now, so it’s been a long time. Back then, you could only find an RE doing IUIs and more close to big cities, but I didn’t know of any big clinics like that other than teaching hospitals. I was right outside of Philadelphia, so not too remote. |
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,539 
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Post by iowgirl on Oct 3, 2019 19:03:48 GMT
Dh was a rather active sperm donor in college. He has been told he fathered somewhere between 12 and 30 kids. His was all anonymous. Fast forward to now, and we are realizing we need to tell ds18 before he decides to do a DNA test. Holy cats is that going to open a flood gate of siblings for him, the kid whose 3rd sentence was, By the way, I don't want any brothers and sisters for Christmas and birthday. Dh really doesn't want to be found out. He would if there was any health issues in his family, but there is not. His parents and brother are all alive and healthy.That might not end up being his choice. One of his siblings, or their offspring could upload their DNA profile to one of the ancestry sites. I do not want my DNA uploaded, but my sister has already done hers, so there is no choice in the matter for me now. |
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chendra
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,901
Location: The 33rd State
Jun 27, 2014 16:58:50 GMT
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Post by chendra on Oct 3, 2019 19:35:36 GMT
We had a huge scandal with an international fertility clinic at the university I attended. The doctors pioneered the GIFT procedure and had about twice the success rate of other clinics.They were the rock stars of the campus until it was discovered that they were implanting women with embryos that were not theirs, nor did the people whose genetic material made up the embryos agree to donate them. The doctors fled to South America when they got caught.
I'm on my phone and not sure how to link, but searching for "UC Irvine fertility scandal" will find results. I think at the time, they estimated about 30 cases, but time and genetic testing will tell.
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Post by malibou on Oct 4, 2019 1:59:48 GMT
Dh was a rather active sperm donor in college. He has been told he fathered somewhere between 12 and 30 kids. His was all anonymous. Fast forward to now, and we are realizing we need to tell ds18 before he decides to do a DNA test. Holy cats is that going to open a flood gate of siblings for him, the kid whose 3rd sentence was, By the way, I don't want any brothers and sisters for Christmas and birthday. Dh really doesn't want to be found out. He would if there was any health issues in his family, but there is not. His parents and brother are all alive and healthy.That might not end up being his choice. One of his siblings, or their offspring could upload their DNA profile to one of the ancestry sites. I do not want my DNA uploaded, but my sister has already done hers, so there is no choice in the matter for me now. Crap, I didn't even think about his brother or brother's kids. His brother is pretty weird - okay, super weird about government spying on him and the like, so I don't think he would do the DNA thing, and his kids are still young, so it will be a while before they try to do it. My husband has some cousins, we think, that still live in England. If they did DNA would that be close enough to link to dh? I don't know that those cousins know anything about dh in terms of getting a hold of him. If it did cause a link, I will feel badly about all the messages they are likely to get. Oy. |
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rodeomom
Pearl Clutcher
Refupee # 380 "I don't have to run fast, I just have to run faster than you."
Posts: 3,718
Location: Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma
Jun 25, 2014 23:34:38 GMT
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Post by rodeomom on Oct 4, 2019 3:46:33 GMT
That might not end up being his choice. One of his siblings, or their offspring could upload their DNA profile to one of the ancestry sites. I do not want my DNA uploaded, but my sister has already done hers, so there is no choice in the matter for me now. Crap, I didn't even think about his brother or brother's kids. His brother is pretty weird - okay, super weird about government spying on him and the like, so I don't think he would do the DNA thing, and his kids are still young, so it will be a while before they try to do it. My husband has some cousins, we think, that still live in England. If they did DNA would that be close enough to link to dh? I don't know that those cousins know anything about dh in terms of getting a hold of him. If it did cause a link, I will feel badly about all the messages they are likely to get. Oy. Yes he can be found through cousin matches. |
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Post by mrssmith on Oct 4, 2019 4:15:20 GMT
And now it's a premise for a TV Show (Almost Family)! Here's another good article: www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/health/sperm-donors-fraud-doctors.htmlThere was another case before all the DNA testing where it was discovered the RE was the donor because multiple kids born as a result of treatments at the clinic all had the same rare genetic eye disease. (Melissa Gilbert was in the made for TV movie). ETA: my sister has a friend who has connected with others who used the same donor (not the doctor). Again before these genetic tests were available. I think it was via message boards about infertility treatments where you could find other people who had used Donor XYZ from a certain clinic. They have group get togethers. |
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