Woman Sues Sperm Bank For Inseminating Her With The "Wrong" Sperm

A women is suing a Chicago sperm bank after the donor sperm she became pregnant with turned out to be from a black man. The mother says her child, who is now two, will be "stigmatised" in the predominatly white Ohio town where they live.

Jennifer Cramblett, 36, discovered the error when she was five months pregnant. She and her partner, Amanda Zinkon, 29, had fallen pregnant shortly after their wedding and were "delighted" when the pregnancy progressed well. Making plans for the future, the couple called the Midwest Sperm Bank to reserve sperm from the same donor in the hope that Zinkon would also mother a child one day.

However the pair learned from an employee at the sperm bank that Cramblett had been inseminated with sperm from a black donor, No.330, instead of the white donor, No.380, she and her partner had chosen.

Midwest Sperm Bank — which touts "the highest standards of quality control" on its website — declined to comment when contacted by NBC News.

The lawsuit says that when Midwest took Cramblett's phone order for vials for Donor No. 380, someone in the office misread the handwritten number as 330 and sent that donor's sperm to the fertility clinic.

The child, Payton, is already experiencing prejudice in Uniontown, says her mother, where 98% of the residents are white, court papers say.

"I am happy that I have a healthy child," Cramblett told NBC News. "But I'm not going to let them get away with not being held accountable."

Cramblett filed the lawsuit against the Illinois sperm bank on Monday. According to the lawsuit, her excitement about the impending birth was replaced with "anger, disappointment and fear."

"They took a personal choice, a personal decision and took it on themselves to make that choice for us out of pure negligence," Cramblett said.

The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $50,000 (£31,338) in damages. Cramblett's attorney said some of the compensation would pay for ongoing counselling.