A fertility doctor in Indiana is facing criminal charges after it was revealed that he repeatedly used his own sperm to impregnate artificial insemination patients. CNN reports that Dr. Donald Cline allegedly misled his patients about the source of the sperm, telling them that it was "fresh sperm" donated by medical students or residents. According to court documents, he did this "around 50 times" throughout his career.
The discovery came about after one of Dr. Cline's former patients, Jacoba Ballard, took a commercial DNA test and found out over time that she had eight half-siblings, which raised a flag for Ballard and some of her other half-siblings. "There were only supposed to be three successful pregnancies using the same sperm donor," court documents obtained by CNN said.
Kristy Killion, one of the half-siblings, and Ballard joined forces when they discovered they were connected, and they eventually found a genetic link between the half-siblings and Dr. Cline's son Doug Cline. Killion and Ballard contacted Doug over Facebook, CNN reports, and Doug told the women that his father had donated sperm to multiple labs.
According to CNN, Killion, Ballard, and four other half-siblings met Dr. Cline in person and court documents say he admitted that he had donated sperm around 50 times over the years but not through a sperm bank. The documents further state that Cline said he felt pressure to use his own sperm with patients because he didn't always have access to usable sperm. Cline also "admitted to doing wrong by inseminating the women with his own semen, but felt that he was helping women because they really wanted a baby," according to CNN.
Cline, who has been retired since 2009, now faces two charges of obstruction of justice, to which he pleaded not guilty this week. He faces up to five years in prison.
