Fertility Doctor Charged After Impregnating Patients

A fertility doctor from Indiana accused of impregnating patients with his own sperm is believed to have fathered 27 children.

Dr. Donald Cline is accused of impregnating patients with his own sperm without their consent. Cline, a fertility doctor, told a reporter he believed he was helping patients who could not conceive on their own.

When questioned by law enforcement, Cline denied the accusations, despite confessing to the reporter he had used his own sperm.

Cline was charged with two felony counts of obstruction of justice, according to WGN.

The accusations against Cline came to light when children of some of his patients, who are now adults, used the website 23andme to have their DNA analyzed to learn more about their family’s background, according to Mad World News.

When the test results came back for one person, it was revealed that there were seven more “sibling relatives” in the database who matched their DNA.

Eventually, several of Cline’s patients figured out what he had done.

Initially, it was reported that Cline had fathered 16 children, but that figure has now been raised to 27.

The doctor is expected to plead guilty to the charges of obstruction of justice, but many believe the charges are not enough for what he did.

“A lot of people tell me that I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t done what he did,” said 35-year-old Julie Manes, who is one of the 27 children born from Cline’s patients. “That is true, but it’s almost like telling a rape victim, ‘Well if your mother hadn’t been raped you wouldn’t be here.’ It doesn’t make it right!”

Cline stepped down from his Indianapolis practice in 2009.

In 1992, Dr. Cecil B. Jacobson was involved in a similar case, for which he was convicted of “52 counts of fraud and perjury for artificially inseminating unwitting patients with his own sperm and for telling them they were pregnant when they were not,” reports WGN. DNA testing confirmed that Jacobson fathered 15 children. He was accused of fathering up to 75 children.

Readers shared their thoughts on Cline’s story on the Mad World News Facebook page.

“Heard this before,” one reader commented. “In fact they made a Law And Order Criminal Intent show a few years ago. It is disgraceful to keep publishing this kind of criminal behavior. Put him in prison where he belongs dividing his income with all his children.”

“He deserves prison time,” another user wrote.

Sources: WGN, Mad World News, Mad World News/Facebook / Featured Image: Daniel Lobo/Flickr / Embedded Images: AP via Daily Mail, Fox59 via Daily Mail