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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Women Say Sperm Bank Lied About Donor

(CN) - Two mothers were told their sperm donor was intelligent, educated and healthy, but he was actually a schizophrenic college dropout with a criminal record, a lawsuit filed by the women claims.

Angela Collins and Margaret Hanson sued Xytex Corporation, Xytex Cryo International Ltd., James Aggeles aka Chris Aggeles, Mary Hartley and 20 John Does in Fulton County, Ga. circuit court.

Xytex operates a sperm bank in Atlanta and Aggeles was sperm donor 9623. The sperm bank claimed that all donors were screened for physical and mental health, were required to have a college degree and provided photos of themselves as children and at the time of their donation, according to the complaint.

Collins and Hanson decided to start a family and say they chose donor 9623's sperm because they were told he had an IQ of 160, was working on a Ph.D., spoke eloquently, and was one of Xytex's best donors. Collins was inseminated and gave birth to a son in 2007.

But Collins and Hanson say they learned of their donor's identity in 2014 and discovered that Xytex wasn't truthful about his characteristics.

"Thereafter, on June 11, 2014, in conjunction with other mothers of children from the same donor who received said information, plaintiffs and others very quickly discovered for the first time that [Xytex's] representations had been false and that, among other things, defendant Aggeles was schizophrenic, which is genetic and hereditary, thereby risking all of defendant's donor offspring," the complaint says.

It continues: "That said defendant had dropped out of college and had no degrees whatsoever; that said defendant Aggeles had been arrested for burglary and was an ex-felon; that Aggeles photos had been doctored and a large mole on his cheek had been removed, all of such information was easily ascertainable by an online search through Google which included information provided by defendant's mother, father and himself on Facebook, YouTube and elsewhere."

The two mothers say that they have spent money planning for their son's potential schizophrenia and to ensure that "he will have the best care possible and that his schizophrenia, should it develop, will be diagnosed and treated before it becomes full-blown psychosis," according to the complaint.

Collins and Hanson sued for fraud, misrepresentation, product liability, breach of warranty, battery, negligence and unfair business practices.

"The semen sold and supplied by defendants and each of them was defective and unsafe at the time it was distributed and used by plaintiff Angela Collins in that it was defective as it contained genetic material about which no warnings were given," the lawsuit states.

Collins and Hanson seek injunctive relief, punitive damages, reimbursement for financial losses, and a medical monitoring fund for Aggeles' offspring.

They are represented by W. Lewis Garrison, Jr. of Heninger Garrison Davis LLC in Birmingham, Ala.

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