Donor deception? Oregon doctor's sperm allegedly improperly used to father 17 children

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) – An Oregon doctor has filed a $5.25 million lawsuit against Oregon Health and Science University for improperly using his sperm after he found out he’s the biological father of at least 17 children he didn’t know about.

The lawsuit states that in 1989, when Dr. Bryce Cleary was a first-year medical student at OHSU, he was approached by staff at the fertility clinic to donate sperm.

Cleary alleges he was promised that his sperm would only be used for women living on the East Coast or outside the Pacific Northwest and that it wouldn’t be used with more than five women or couples trying to conceive.

The lawsuit goes on to say that after five babies had been successfully born, Cleary’s sperm would be used only for research.

After graduation, Cleary obtained his medical license, became a board-certified physician and became a doctor in a small town in Oregon. He had three sons and adopted a daughter.

Meanwhile, he had no knowledge that his sperm was used or that any successful births had taken place.

Then in March, 2018, two sisters contacted Cleary looking for information about their biological dad. The lawsuit states that both girls, and other siblings, set out to find out who their dad was after submitting DNA to Ancestry.com.

After submitting his own DNA to the genealogical website, Cleary discovered that he not only was the father to those two sisters but to at least 15 others, most of whom were born in Oregon.