A white woman in Ohio
is suing a sperm bank because she says staff mistakenly gave her vials of semen
from an African-American donor after she had requested samples from a
white man.
Jennifer Cramblett
used the services of the Downers Grove-based Midwest Sperm Bank in 2011 and
successfully became pregnant.
She is now raising her
two-year-old mixed-race daughter with her same-sex partner, Amanda Zinkon, in
Uniontown, Ohio.
Although she became
aware of the mix-up when she was pregnant in April 2012, Cramblett says that
she has decided to sue the sperm bank now because she has experienced
difficulties in the child’s upbringing in a predominantly all-white community –
which she describes in the lawsuit as ‘too racially intolerant’.
She is suing for
‘wrongful birth’ and ‘breach of warranty’, saying that she has suffered
emotional and economic losses.
The lawsuit, which was
republished by the Sun Sentinel, can be read in its entirety here. It states, ‘On
August 21, 2012, Jennifer gave birth to Payton, a beautiful, obviously
mixed-race baby girl.
‘Jennifer bonded with
Payton easily and she and Amanda love her very much. Even so, Jennifer lives
each day with fears, anxieties and uncertainty about her future and Payton’s
future.’
The lawsuits says that
the women became aware of the problem when they contacted the clinic to enquire
about getting more samples from the same donor, with a view to Zinkon also
conceiving a child.
The lawsuit suggests
that the error was due to the clinic hand-labeling samples in pen and ink
instead of printing clear electronic labels: Cramblett was sent samples from
donor ‘330’ instead of donor ‘380’.
When the error became
apparent, the clinic wrote a letter of apology and issued Cramblett with a
refund for the sperm samples that she had already purchased.
The lawsuit says that
because of Cramblett’s upbringing, where family members expressed stereotypical
attitudes around non-white people, she has ‘limited cultural competency
relative to African Americans’ and is undergoing a ‘steep learning curve.’
‘As just one example,
getting a young daughter’s hair cut is not particularly stressful for most
mothers, but to Jennifer it is not a routine matter, because Payton has hair
typical of an African American girl. To get a decent cut, Jennifer must travel
to a black neighborhood, far from where she lives, where she is obviously
different in appearance, and not overtly welcome.’
Cramblett believes her
child’s welfare and psychological well-being would be improved if the family
moved to a more racially diverse area, and that she feels particular stress at
the thought of sending her to an all-white school.
In an interview with
NBC News, Cramblett said that she had initially been ‘mad’ with the sperm bank
for being negligent, and was then upset because she felt they didn’t seem to
care about her feelings and emotions.
In talking about the
reasons for launching the lawsuit, she said, ‘We decided we had to take this
into our hands because… I’m not going to sit back and let this happen to anyone
every again.
‘You can’t just do
that and say, “Well you got a baby… so you should be happy. Lesbian couples
can’t get a baby anyway… you should be happy you have a healthy child”. I am
happy that I have a healthy child. We love her more to this day, she’s made us
the people that we are, never trade her for the world… but I’m not going to let
them get away with not being held accountable.’
The Midwest Sperm Bank
has declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Source:
Gaystarnes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment