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'The unending question': Florida couple files lawsuit after IVF mix-up
A Florida couple has filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic after it was discovered that their child, born through IVF, was created with an unknown man's sperm.
Natalie and Joshua Strong are suing the Brown Fertility Clinic of Jacksonville after they discovered Joshua is not biologically related to their child.
There is also a question of what happened to Joshua's sperm sample, and a worry that a different child could be biologically his, without his or the birth parents' knowledge.
Mix-ups like this one are occurring at an alarming rate, as the IVF industry is largely unregulated.
Natalie and Joshua Strong say that Brown Fertility Clinic of Jacksonville used an unknown man's sperm — rather than Joshua's — in the in-vitro fertilization process. As a result, Joshua is not biologically related to the couple's one-year old daughter.
The mix-up was discovered after the Strongs realized that their daughter's blood type was not possible given their own blood types. They ordered a DNA test, which confirmed their suspicions.
“Joshua suffers the daily knowledge that the daughter he is raising bears no biological connection to him, the loss of the irreplaceable genetic future he believed he was building with his wife, and the unending question of what became of his cryopreserved sperm,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also calls out the very real possibility that though Joshua's sperm was not used for his daughter, it may have been unintentionally used to create someone else's child.
“Brown Fertility cannot, or will not, say where it is, whether it remains in storage, whether Brown Fertility discarded it, or whether Brown Fertility used it to impregnate another patient,” the lawsuit said. “The Strongs do not know whether Joshua has biological children, fathered without his knowledge, being raised today by other Brown Fertility patients who have no idea.”
The couple is seeking over $50,000 in damages and a jury trial in the case.
Mix-ups like this one are not unheard of, and they carry alarming and widespread implications. Because IVF is widely unregulated and subject to a high margin of human error, some children are accidentally being born and raised by parents who are not biologically related to them.
In some instances, these mistakes are discovered after the baby has already lived with a family for a number of months, leading to a difficult legal quagmire as the courts try to determine who gets the baby.
One of the Strongs' attorneys, Robert Marcereau, admitted that the industry needs to be far more regulated.
"There's just a complete and utter lack of regulation in this industry," he told First Coast News. "And it really has become a profit, a for-profit business instead of a business designed to help people and to care for people. And we really feel that because of that business aspect that corners are cut, that clinics are understaffed, and that is what has led to this rash of problems that we see over and over and over again throughout the country."
The biggest victims when mix-ups like this occur are the children who are treated like commodities.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
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·'The unending question': Florida couple files lawsuit after IVF mix-up
A Florida couple has filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic after it was discovered that their child, born through IVF, was created with an unknown man's sperm.
Natalie and Joshua Strong are suing the Brown Fertility Clinic of Jacksonville after they discovered Joshua is not biologically related to their child.
There is also a question of what happened to Joshua's sperm sample, and a worry that a different child could be biologically his, without his or the birth parents' knowledge.
Mix-ups like this one are occurring at an alarming rate, as the IVF industry is largely unregulated.
Natalie and Joshua Strong say that Brown Fertility Clinic of Jacksonville used an unknown man's sperm — rather than Joshua's — in the in-vitro fertilization process. As a result, Joshua is not biologically related to the couple's one-year old daughter.
The mix-up was discovered after the Strongs realized that their daughter's blood type was not possible given their own blood types. They ordered a DNA test, which confirmed their suspicions.
“Joshua suffers the daily knowledge that the daughter he is raising bears no biological connection to him, the loss of the irreplaceable genetic future he believed he was building with his wife, and the unending question of what became of his cryopreserved sperm,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also calls out the very real possibility that though Joshua's sperm was not used for his daughter, it may have been unintentionally used to create someone else's child.
“Brown Fertility cannot, or will not, say where it is, whether it remains in storage, whether Brown Fertility discarded it, or whether Brown Fertility used it to impregnate another patient,” the lawsuit said. “The Strongs do not know whether Joshua has biological children, fathered without his knowledge, being raised today by other Brown Fertility patients who have no idea.”
The couple is seeking over $50,000 in damages and a jury trial in the case.
Mix-ups like this one are not unheard of, and they carry alarming and widespread implications. Because IVF is widely unregulated and subject to a high margin of human error, some children are accidentally being born and raised by parents who are not biologically related to them.
In some instances, these mistakes are discovered after the baby has already lived with a family for a number of months, leading to a difficult legal quagmire as the courts try to determine who gets the baby.
One of the Strongs' attorneys, Robert Marcereau, admitted that the industry needs to be far more regulated.
"There's just a complete and utter lack of regulation in this industry," he told First Coast News. "And it really has become a profit, a for-profit business instead of a business designed to help people and to care for people. And we really feel that because of that business aspect that corners are cut, that clinics are understaffed, and that is what has led to this rash of problems that we see over and over and over again throughout the country."
The biggest victims when mix-ups like this occur are the children who are treated like commodities.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Nancy Flanders
·Issues
Nancy Flanders
·Issues
Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN
·Issues
Cassy Cooke
·Issues
Sheena Rodriguez
·Politics
Bernadette Pate
·Abortion Pill
Bridget Sielicki
·Investigative
Bridget Sielicki
·Politics
Bridget Sielicki
·Abortion Pill
Bridget Sielicki
·Abortion Pill
Bridget Sielicki
·