After Discovering he has at Least 17 kids, Man Sues Fertility Clinic

Dr. Bryce Cleary agreed to donate sperm while he was a student at Oregon Health & Science University after the clinic solicited him and fellow medical students for donations, even offering $40. But he said he did so under the acknowledgement that the clinic would not use it to create more than five children. 

But the doctor has now sued the University for $5.25 million after learning that his sperm was used to for more than 17 children, two of which have gone to the same schools and social events as the children he has with his wife. Dr. Cleary says he only began to learn of his numerous biological offspring in March of last year, when two of his biological daughters contacted him. The two women said they were able to identify him with the help of Ancestry.com as well as “specific and substantive information” from the clinic, according to the lawsuit. He then sent his DNA to the site and found that he was the father of 15 more children, three of which live in his home state of Oregon.

One of the woman that first reached out to Dr. Cleary, 25-year-old Allyson Allee, says that “It feels like OHSU really didn’t take into consideration the fact that they were creating humans. They were reckless with this, and it feels like it was just money and numbers to them.”

See Beth Mole, After Discovering he has at Least 17 kids, Man Sues Fertility Clinic, Ars Technica, October 3, 2019.

Special thanks to Laura Galvan (Attorney, San Antonio, Texas) for bringing this article to my attention.