Rochester doctor accused of artificially inseminating women with his own sperm
Rochester, N.Y. — A Geneseo woman is suing her former doctor, accusing him of artificially inseminating several women - including her own mother.
She filed the lawsuit in Monroe County Supreme Court on Saturday against Dr. Morris Wortman, the Genesee Valley Group Health Association, and the Center for Menstrual Disorders, accusing them of fraud and malpractice.
She says that her mother and father were treated by Dr. Wortman for infertility in the 1980s. She was born in 1985 - the result, her parents were told, of sperm donated by a medical student.
The plaintiff says her parents told her of the circumstances of her conception when she was 9 and that Dr. Wortman was "revered" in her family for helping them have a child.
Years later, the woman went to Dr. Wortman to be treated for her own gynecological problems. In 2016, she underwent genetic testing and discovered she was 50 percent Ashkenazi Jewish. A year later, she learned she had two half-brothers, born in 1984 and 1985, who were also 50 percent Ashkenazi Jewish. In 2018, she learned of two additional half-siblings who were born in 1985, like her. In 2019, she found out she had a half-brother who was born in 1983.
The discoveries were positive at first, but took a mental and psychological toll, according to the lawsuit.
"With each new half-sibling discovery, Plaintiff experienced increased anxiety, migraine headaches, shock and confusion, feelings of despair, stress and other physical manifestations of continuing to learn that her donor father had been a serial sperm donor. Plaintiff also feared there were other half-siblings who would continue to show up in her life," it reads.
In 2020, she learned of another half-brother born in 1981.
She reported the discovery of each additional half-sibling to the staff at Dr. Wortman's practice. During a visit in April 2021, she said Dr. Wortman asked her personal questions, like her children's names, her husband's name, and what her husband did for work.
"At the very end of the appointment as Plaintiff was getting ready to leave and as he was writing something down he started to chuckle to himself and said out loud, “ You’re a really good kid, such a good kid," the lawsuit claims. "At that point, Plaintiff believed for the first time that Defendant Wortman was trying to explain why he had impregnated so many women with the same donor, and for the first time, Plaintiff believed there was a possibility Defendant Wortman could be the donor himself. But she was in shock and disbelieve that he would continue [to] treat her as her gynecologist if she were his biological daughter."
The woman and one of her half-brothers asked a daughter from Dr. Wortman's first marriage to take a DNA test. The test confirmed the half-brother and Dr. Wortman's daughter were siblings.
The lawsuit claims Dr. Wortman used his own knowing he had "genetically significant risk factors." The lawsuit claims Dr. Wortman has been diagnosed with and treated for mental illness, as have his brother and mother.
"Plaintiff realizing that she had been lied to while Defendants continued their gynecological treatment of Plaintiff caused her significant trauma, emotional harm and distress, and physical manifestations of that trauma, emotional harm and distress," the lawsuit reads.
The woman is asking for monetary damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
Dr. Wortman declined to comment.
