Parents are suing a US-based sperm bank who allegedly supplied them with sperm belonging to a convicted criminal with mental health issues.
Three families in Canada are suing Xytex Corp and Canadian distributor Outreach Health for C$15.4m (£8.4m) in damages, with allegations including wrongful birth, failure to investigate and fraud.
According to the lawsuit, prospective clients were told that Donor 9623 was a gifted musician with an IQ of 160 who was pursuing a PhD in neuroscience engineering.
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The claimants allege that instead, he was a 39-year-old convicted burglar with multiple serious mental health conditions.
None of this information was included in the profile created by the donor, who has fathered at least 36 children in the US, the UK and Canada, says the lawsuit. Xytex allegedly allowed the man to continue donating sperm until January 2016, despite being informed of his misleading profile in 2014.
"If proven, this takes this case from shocking to truly outrageous," James Fireman, the families' lawyer, told the Toronto Star.
The parents discovered their donor's identity when his email address was accidentally included in a message from Xytex. Using the internet and public records, they say they discovered the man had been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, grandiose delusions and schizophrenia, which is believed to have a strong genetic component.
In addition, they claim the donor spent eight months in prison after being convicted of burglary and had only just completed his undergraduate degree, 20 years after dropping out.
"He should not have done what he did, but the big problem is not with him," Angie Collins, one of the claimants, told the Star. "It's with companies that allowed him to donate and sold his sperm."
Ted Lavender, a lawyer representing Georgia-based Xytex, says the company is an "industry leader and complies with all industry standards".
"Pursuing claims in a court of law requires actual evidence and proof," he said in an email to The Guardian, dismissing the lawsuit as "unfounded allegations".
Referring to an earlier lawsuit that was dismissed by a Georgia court because the concept of "wrongful birth" is not recognised under that state's law, Lavender added: "Xytex looks forward to successfully defending itself from the new lawsuits with the same results as the original case."
