Families of former patients in Ontario were offered millions of dollars after suing a fertility doctor for impregnating patients with his own sperm.
The families settled Wednesday for $13 million to resolve a lawsuit against the doctor, which had been ongoing since 2016, according to BBC News. (RELATED: ‘It Reaches Zero In 2045’: Scientist Makes Startling Prediction About Sperm Counts)
‘I’m the evidence and the consequence’: the daughter of a patient of #fertility doctor Norman Barwin, inseminated with his own sperm, speaks out about how his choices altered her life: https://t.co/SNG3i6LMPW
— Caryn Lieberman (@caryn_lieberman) June 26, 2019
Rebecca Dixon, resident of Ottawa, Ontario, developed a disease that no one else in her family had a history of and decided to take a DNA test. The test results concluded that her parents’ doctor, Norman Barwin, was Rebecca’s biological father. The Dixon family then filed a $13 million lawsuit against Barwin.
The lawsuit also included an additional $75,000 to cover the cost of setting up a database so that children who were conceived at his clinics could identify their biological father, according to the BBC. It will also give them access to his medical history to find out if their father has a history of medical conditions or genetic disorders and to locate potential half siblings.
Soon after the lawsuit, other families came out claiming that Barwin was the father of their children. Between 1973 and 2012, it was speculated that Barwin impregnated close to 500 patients who went on to have children. The number of claimants could go up in the lawsuit, the Dixons’ lawyer, Peter Cronyn, claimed.
Norman continued to deny the accusations that were being made against him. He was revoked of his medical license and chose to settle because he thought that fighting the case any longer was a waste of his money and time.