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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Sperm Confusion Suit Thrown Out in Illinois

WHEATON, Ill. (CN) - A white woman who sued when the baby she conceived via sperm donation turned out to be black must amend her claim against the clinic, a judge ruled.

Judge Ronald Sutter with the Dupage County Circuit Court said Jennifer Cramblett's claims of wrongful birth and breach of warranty lacked legal merit, but granted her motion to file an amended complaint for negligence.

Bob Summers, an attorney for Midwest Sperm Ban, argued that wrongful-birth cases are meant for children born with congenital disorders that medical testing missed.

The court also concluded that the Illlinois Blood and Organ Transaction Liability Act does not cover sperm.

In the lawsuit she filed last year, Cramblett claimed that she and her partner, Amanda Zinkon, looked for a sperm donor in 2011 with genetic traits similar to their own.

After Cramblett became pregnant that December, she allegedly found out in April that Midwest had sent her the wrong batch because of a clerical error.

Cramblett claimed that she worried about how her daughter, now 3, would fit in in their hometown of Uniontown, Ohio, whose population of 2,800 was 98 percent white in 2000.

She noted that her family had struggled to accept her homosexuality in past years, and that racial intolerance is a concern as well. Cramblett admitted that she herself was "raised around stereotypical attitudes about people other than those in her all-white environment."

The case is due back in court Dec. 17 for a hearing.

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