White woman sues sperm bank after getting black man's donation by mistake
An Ohio woman who thought she was being inseminated with sperm from a white man but was instead sent vials from a black man is suing the sperm bank that made the mistake, saying her biracial daughter has to suffer living in an "intolerant" town close to insensitive relatives.
"They've made the one mistake a sperm bank can't make," says Jennifer Cramblett's attorney, Thomas Intili. "It's not like she was ordering pizza."
In 2011, Cramblett received sperm from the Midwest Sperm Bank that she thought came from a white donor, she told NBC News. Cramblett's lawsuit says that once she was pregnant with her daughter, Payton, she called to order more vials in order for her partner, Amanda, to get pregnant with a sibling. It was then she found out that someone at the bank read the order number wrong the first time, and sent vials from the black donor.
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Payton, now 2, is being stigmatized for being biracial, court papers say. The family lives in Uniontown, where 98 percent of the population is white. Intili said his client "did not encounter any African-American people until she entered college. Not all her friends and family members are racially sensitive." Even getting Payton's hair cut is traumatizing, the lawsuit says, since "Payton has hair typical of an African-American girl, [and] to get a decent cut, Jennifer must travel to a black neighborhood, far from where she lives, where she is obviously different in appearance, and not overtly welcome."
Cramblett says she does not want her daughter to "ever feel like she's an outcast," and wants to move to a city with a more diverse population and good schools. While her lawsuit does not specify damages, her attorney said she needs enough money to be able to move away.
