An Idaho woman, Sharon Hayes, has filed a lawsuit against her former fertility doctor, Dr. David R. Claypool, claiming that he used his sperm to inseminate her during fertility treatments 34 years ago. The lawsuit, the latest in a series of similar cases emerging with the rise of at-home DNA testing, alleges that Hayes sought fertility care in 1989, wanting an anonymous sperm donor selected based on specific traits. Instead, she and her daughter, Brianna Hayes, discovered last year that Brianna’s biological father was Dr. Claypool after submitting her DNA to the genetic testing and ancestry website 23andMe.
Brianna Hayes, now 33, expressed the emotional impact of this revelation, describing it as an “identity crisis” and feeling traumatized by the situation. Notably, she learned she has at least 16 half-siblings in the same area. Dr. Claypool’s lawyer, Drew Dalton, has declined to comment on the allegations. Claypool claimed he had no knowledge of the situation and stated that he had not practiced since 2005.
Cases of “fertility fraud” have become more prevalent with the expansion of online DNA testing services. Last year, The New York Times reported that over 50 U.S. fertility doctors had been accused of fraud related to donated sperm. Some fertility specialists, including an Indiana doctor, have been the focus of documentaries for secretly fathering numerous children through insemination. In a separate case, a Colorado jury awarded nearly $9 million to three families who accused a fertility doctor of using his sperm instead of anonymous donors.
The allegations in Sharon Hayes’ lawsuit include fraud, failure to obtain consent in violation of state medical malpractice law, and violation of state consumer protection law for Dr. Claypool’s alleged scheme to charge cash for his own sperm while representing it as a donor’s sperm. Brianna Hayes, while connecting with her newfound half-siblings, has never met Dr. Claypool and originally sought genetic information to understand health issues not present on her mother’s side of the family.
Sharon Hayes, in response to the situation, expressed immense guilt, to which her daughter reassured her that the responsibility lay with the doctor, not her, for seeking fertility assistance through appropriate channels.
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