Woman Sues Sperm Bank Over Biracial Baby

Example:   [Collected via Twitter, October 2014]

Origins:   On 29 September 2014, Ohio woman Jennifer Cramblett filed an unusual lawsuit in Cook County, Illinois. Cramblett is suing the Downers Grove-based Midwest Sperm Bank over a mix-up in vial numbering that led to the birth of her mixed-race daughter Payton in 2012.

Cramblett and her partner Amanda Zinkon are both white and selected anonymous donor number 380. While that donor was white, donor 330 was black. Cramblett and Zinkon received sperm from donor 330 but only learned of the inadvertent substitution when Cramblett was pregnant and sought to order more vials of sperm from the same donor.

A suit filed on 29 September in Illinois against Midwest Sperm Bank alleges wrongful birth and breach of warranty and illustrates economic and social damages allegedly suffered by Cramblett in the unexpected circumstance of raising a mixed race child. Portions of the lawsuit state:

... Because of [the couple's] background and upbringing, Jennifer acknowledges her limited cultural competency relative to African-Americans and steep learning curve, particularly in small, homogenous Uniontown, which she regards as too racially intolerant.