A family is suing their doctor after a DNA test showed their adult IVF baby isn’t related to her dad, prompting their claims that a stranger’s sperm was used in the 1991 insemination.
According to the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Jeanine and John “Mike” Harvey said they discovered their daughter Jessica was not biologically related to her father following a DNA test.
The family, from Ohio in the US, have accused Summa Health System of malpractice, negligence and fraud.
The couple alleged the health practice failed to “properly collect” and “safeguard” John’s genetic material.
Speaking in a virtual press conference, Jeanine said she and John had been to see a fertility doctor for help around 30 years ago.
She claimed they “couldn’t have been clearer” in their goal, which was to have a child who was genetically related to both of them.
“I underwent the in vitro fertilisation with the understanding that Mike’s genetic materials would be used in this procedure,” she said.
The family first learned of the alleged botched procedure upon purchasing a DNA test for Jessica, before she went to Europe in 2020.
Jeanine explained the family thought the it could be “cool” for her to connect with distant relatives in the countries she visited.
However, instead of her father’s Italian heritage on her test, Jessica instead found that she was of Irish, English, German, Welsh and French descent.
Jessica said there were “no words” to express what she and her parents had been through and claimed she was in “total disbelief”.
The organisation has made a statement to local media outlets saying it was taking the allegations “seriously”.
“At this point, we have not met with the family or conducted testing of our own. Given the very limited information that we have and the amount of time that has passed, it remains our hope that the attorneys representing the family will work with us to make that next step a priority,” Mike Bernstein, system director of Corporate Communications for Summa Health System, said.
Jessica had since tracked down her biological father through ancestry.com and genealogists hired by her lawyer.
It has been confirmed that the man gave sperm for an insemination procedure on the same day the Harveys were in his office.
The Harvey family have said they hope their lawsuit will lead to federal oversight of the fertility industry.
