A retired fertility doctor from Boston is currently facing a lawsuit wherein a woman alleges that he employed his own sperm for her impregnation over 40 years ago, as reported by The Guardian. Dr. Merle Berger, co-founder of Boston IVF and former professor at Harvard Medical School, is accused of secretly impregnating a patient named Sarah Depoia, according to a civil claim filed in the U.S. District Court in Boston.
Mrs. Depoian and her husband sought Dr. Merle Berger’s assistance in 1980 to conceive a child. Dr. Berger assured her that the sperm would be from an anonymous donor resembling her husband but unknown to her. However, Mrs. Depoian claims that Dr. Berger used his own sperm without her consent.
Her daughter, Carolyn Bester, born in January 1981 as a result of the insemination, recently discovered through a home DNA test that Dr. Berger is her biological father, according to the lawsuit. Ms. Bester found DNA matches with Dr. Berger’s granddaughter and second cousin, leading to the shocking revelation.
Adam Wolf, representing Mrs. Depoian, described Dr. Berger’s actions as a “horrific act” akin to medical rape and emphasized the unethical and unlawful nature of the misconduct. Mrs. Depoian expressed her struggle to process the extreme violation, stating that she had fully trusted Dr. Berger to act responsibly and ethically.
In response, Dr. Berger’s lawyer issued a statement, describing him as a pioneer in the fertility field who, in 50 years of practice, helped thousands of families fulfill their dreams of having a child. The lawyer dismissed the allegations, noting their lack of legal or factual merit and the evolving nature of the claims since they were first raised.
Instances of fertility doctors being accused of using their own sperm in artificial insemination procedures have been reported in the past.