A small petri dish holding several embryos is positioned onto a microscope stand used to extract cells from each embryo to test for viability at the Aspire Houston Fertility Institute in vitro fertilization lab Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
A Nevada father says that a fertility clinic mix-up is causing him to spend thousands to adopt his own teenage daughter after testing revealed they are not genetically related.
A man and his daughter have filed a lawsuit in Las Vegas accusing a fertility doctor of implanting the man’s wife with an embryo that didn’t contain genetic material from either parent. As explained in the complaint, the man, identified only as “EP Doe,” and his wife, “CWP Doe,” were unable to conceive after getting married in 1996. The couple turned to IVF and ultimately decided to use an egg provided by an anonymous donor, with EP Doe providing the sperm. Their daughter, identified in the complaint as KP Doe, was born in 2006.
“As the time went by, EP and CWP Doe did not tell KP that she was the product of an egg donor and EP’s sperm,” says the complaint, which has been reviewed by Law&Crime. “There just did not seem to be a reason to.”
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The daughter only learned that she wasn’t related to her father after participating in a genetic test that she pursued after her mother died in 2022 from “various auto immune and heart issues.” KP, wanting “to know more about her ancestral background” according to the complaint, told EP that she intended to take a DNA test via Ancestry.com.
“Obviously, because EP knew what it would show regarding CWP Doe, EP then told KP that CWP Doe was not her biological mother and that they had used an egg donor and EP’s sperm via IVF to have her,” the complaint says.
But the DNA test results, which KP received in October 2023, also revealed something else: KP and EP were not genetically related.
“The results determined that EP was not the biological father at all,” the complaint says (emphasis removed). “And, ultimately, it became apparent that the egg donor who was chosen by EP and CWP Doe was not the mother. The embryo that was implanted was not the embryo created with the egg donor picked by EP and CWP Doe and the sperm of EP. In fact, it later became known that the implanted embryo (who became KP) was another embryo created by McConnell, Harris and Nevada Fertility C.A.R.E.S for another couple whose biological father was DM (aka MS) who lives in Las Vegas.”
The fertility clinic where the couple went for help, Nevada Fertility C.A.R.E.S., shuttered its doors years ago, the complaint says, leaving the plaintiffs at a loss for what happened with the embryo created from the chosen donor egg.
“EP has no idea what happened to the embryo created with his sperm,” the lawsuit later says.
The lawsuit names C.A.R.E.S., as well as doctor Rachel McConnell and embryologist Dee Harris, as defendants. According to a report from Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS, at around the same time as the mix-up, McConnell had settled a $30,000 lawsuit for “negligence in freezing and storing embryos.”
Because of their actions, the complaint says, “EP was deprived of the opportunity to create life from his heritage as was promised and planned by Defendants … KP is not the biological daughter of EP as was intended, and KP is not the biological daughter of EP or the egg donor.”
The lawsuit says that EP and KP “now have to undergo adoption proceedings to legalize their parent-child relationship,” which the lawsuit says “will cost a significant sum of money.”
The plaintiffs are suing for malpractice, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and they are seeking an undetermined amount of punitive damages as well as compensatory damages greater than $15,000.
“At some point before implantation and even after, Defendants and each of them should have known about what they did in this matter,” the complaint says. “The reason is, DM would have had a missing embryo from Nevada Fertility C.A.R.E.S., and, EP (and CWP Doe) would have had an embryo that went un-implanted.”
The complaint notes that there is a chance the embryo created with EP’s sperm and the couple’s chosen egg donor was implanted into someone else, and therefore “it is possible that somewhere out in the world, due to the actions of defendants and each of them, EP has a biological child.”
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The lawsuit contemplates the possibility that this type of mix-up “may very have happened to the hundreds of persons treated by Defendants from 2002 through 2012.”
“The only way anyone would know would be DNA testing of all persons who used the services of Defendants from 2002-2012 and the children created thereby. Defendants, and each of them, should pay for same,” the complaint adds.
Robert Murdock, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told Law&Crime that IVF “is a wonderful help to aid couples with infertility.”
“But, meticulous protocols must be followed or mistakes will happen,” Murdock said. “And these type of mistakes are simply unthinkable and unacceptable.”
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