Fertility Doctor Allegedly Used His Own Sperm To Father 11 Children

A Canadian doctor, whose job is to help couples conceive children when they cannot do so themselves, has been accused of unethically inserting himself into the process almost a dozen times, CNN reported. Dr. Norman Barwin was sued on behalf of former patients at his Ottawa-based clinic for allegedly using his own sperm to inseminate mothers without their knowledge or consent.

According to a press release published by the law firm suing Barwin, 11 people learned via DNA tests that Barwin was their biological father, not the men previously thought to have fathered them. That meant women who signed up to be inseminated by sperm from their partners or anonymous donors actually got it from Barwin without knowing it, according to the lawsuit.

The accusations against Barwin go much deeper than that, encompassing his work at the Broadview Fertility Clinic and the Ottawa General Hospital, going back at least 40 years. The lawsuit also alleged that 16 children did not biologically match their fathers after supposedly being conceived using the fathers’ sperm samples at Barwin’s clinic. Beyond that, 35 people supposedly do not match the anonymous donor sperm that was used for their conception.

In all of those cases, those people are now left wondering about the identity of their real biological father.

There is precedent in Barwin’s career that would help the lawsuit’s case. He confessed and was suspended in 2013 by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for giving four women the wrong sperm.

Should the lawsuit go through, this would be the first time accusations against Barwin have gone to court, per the CBC. If the allegations are true, that would mean at least 11 people are half-siblings with the same father, a Canadian fertility doctor who has not practiced since 2012.

The lawsuit against Barwin bore more than a superficial similarity to another recent lawsuit filed in Idaho. In that case, an OB/GYN was found to be the biological father of a child he helped deliver decades prior when the now-adult woman took a DNA test via Ancestry.com. That doctor was accused of medical negligence and fraud for allegedly using his own sperm instead of an anonymous donor like he promised.