It was 1975. This Hopkins Ville
household felt lucky Susan Crowder was
finally pregnant with her first child.
Everybody loves being pregnant.
Your cheeks are rosy, you know, for
Susan and her husband the process
to get pregnant wasn't easy.
The couple turned to a well
known Louisville fertility.
Dr Marvin Yasmin for help.
It really was only seen in his office twice.
Susan had two children under his
watch using anonymous donors.
Then the family moved away from.
Kentucky she thought Louisville and
the fertility appointments were
only pinpoints of her past until
her daughter, now 45 years old,
submitted DNA to ancestry.com.
All of a sudden's Walla.
We have seven stepsiblings,
seven siblings she didn't know about
before her daughter's DNA results.
Seven siblings that all shared one dad
when she said that I went Oh my God,
the tests found Marvin, Yasmin the
doctor was the biological father.
The more I thought about it was,
like you know, this is rude.
This was really rude.
Not only was my donor supposed to
be anonymous, but I was supposed
to be anonymous to the donor.
A quick search of Yasmin's name
led Susan to his employer,
Uofl School of Medicine.
First, we wrote to the university
where Dr. Yasmin was still
practicing or was still teaching
in that email to the university.
Susan wrote quote, I feel betrayed,
his behavior was immoral and unethical.
She says it took months.
For UL staff to respond and when
they did they said he had since
retired in his retirement letter.
Yasmin wrote, he would not be doing
this if he were not confronting
serious personal circumstances.
He also said he did not want to
give up his basketball tickets.
It made me mad.
Next, she turned her attention to the
Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure.
She filed an official grievance
stating I realized Doctor Yasmin
did not break any laws as such.
I certainly feel his actions.
Were unconscionable and depraved
never ethical. This wasn't right.
Nobody ever expected doctors to
inseminate their own patients.
Yasmin responded to the grievance
writing quote on very rare occasions
when the donor did not show and
no frozen specimen was available.
I used my own sperm and
investigator with the board,
said Yasmin admitted to using his
own sperm to inseminate patients.
About half a dozen times.
You picture this.
Doctor engaging in a sex act.
While his patient is waiting
for him down the hall,
Dr. Jody Madeira is a professor at IU
School of Law and Expert in fertility fraud,
and the patient is going to be laying there.
You know, likely with her legs,
in stirrups and a drape,
and she might not even see that vile.
You know, they,
she may not even have an opportunity
to check or even think to ask,
because who would suspect that
this person you trust the person
that you've chosen to help you
build your family will deceive you
well? Susan waited for word
from the medical board.
She says she received a note.
From an employee at U of L asking
her to drop the grievance,
he was encouraging me to withdraw
my letter and I later found out
he that he is the head of OBGYN
at the university and he wasn't
just a colleague who was his boss.
There is. Just along the line,
it seems like people aren't
very interested in this, and
then the line grew.
The Kentucky Medical Licensure
Board determined in Susan's
case there was insufficient
evidence of a violation of the
Kentucky Medical Practice Act.
So yes, men got to keep his
license and continue his work with
patients and students at U of L.
I think it's very problematic that
the medical board in Kentucky
did not step up and protect the
patients rights. In this instance,
Kentucky has no law forbidding physicians
from. Impregnating unwitting patients
using their own semen most states don't.
It's sad that we have to pass a
law that says specifically doctors.
It should be a civil wrong and a
criminal wrong to use your own gametes
when a patient does not consent.
One of the most prolific violators
of fertility fraud was based just
100 miles north in Indianapolis. I
felt like I was raped 15
times and didn't know it.
Doctor Donald Cline used his
own sperm to inseminate.
Dozens of women, and in turn he
fathered nearly 50 children. We
can't really look in the mirror
because you have no idea where your
facial features come from anymore.
The case inspired a new law in Indiana,
making it a felony to misrepresent
a medical procedure involving
human reproductive material.
Other states followed suit,
and now it could be Kentucky's turn. I
would like to see a law in
Kentucky that protects these
women who seek this treatment.
Uhm, and it needs to be on the books
as this isn't just an ethics thing,
this is against the law
right now. Dr Jody Madera is working
with Susan Crowder and Kentucky
lawmakers to begin the process of
drafting local legislation that
will criminalize fertility fraud.
But she says it could be years
before the bill is passed and
the law enforced for focus.
I'm Shay McAlister.