Canadian Doctor Accused of Impregnating 11 Women With Own Sperm Through IVF
Dr. Normal Barwin, accused of switching sperms, denied that he mixed up the sperm samples intentionally. His excuse is as bizzare as his alleged crime.
A Canadian fertility doctor has landed himself in trouble after allegedly impregnating 11 of his clients with his own sperm. The IVF specialist has been accused of doing so without his patients’ consent. Dr. Norman Barwin, who used to run Broadview Fertility Clinic in Ottawa was first accused in 2016 when a family filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that Dr. Barwin used his own sperm to impregnate the woman instead of her husband’s and their daughter, who was born in 1990, was actually the doctor’s biological daughter.
In the months that followed, the lawyers representing the complainants said that more than 150 people accused the doctor of misconduct. Some complaints date back to as far as late 1970s. The DNA investigations conducted on the 11 individuals implicates the doctor since they confirm his paternity. In all the cases, the doctor was supposed to use the sperm of either the father or the anonymous donors.’ Instead, he used his own.
Apart from the 11 people who share Dr. Barwin’s DNA, there are 50 others included in the class action because their DNA doesn’t match their fathers.’ The children so fathered by the doctor have reached out to each other. Kat Palmer aged 25 was the first to realise the fraud when she found that she was related to Barwin’s distant relative. She contacted the doctor and soon realised that he was her biological father when the results of the paternity test came out.
The doctor, on his part, has claimed that the mix-up was unintentional on his part. He states that the sperm samples may have got mixed up because he happened to use his own sperm to test out a sperm counter.
The doctor's lawyers are yet to respond to the allegations.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 12, 2018 04:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).