Lawsuit claims Connecticut doctor used his sperm for insemination, 22 half-siblings found

New Haven, Connecticut (WTNH) — A Connecticut woman and her mother are suing a New Haven fertility doctor for allegedly using her own sperm to inseminate them in the 1980s.

“How many of us will there be 10 to 15 years from now?” said Janine Pearson, the woman who filed the lawsuit.

Pearson, who grew up as an only child, said she knew her parents were seeing a fertility doctor but thought her father’s sperm had been used. She said Pearson became interested in her father’s genetics and, unaware that it would affect her for the rest of her life, she decided to take a 23andme DNA test in 2022.

“When I clicked on the kinship tab, 19 half-siblings popped up,” Pearson said.

Pearson paused to talk about the pain of reliving that moment. I couldn’t believe it at first, but when I restarted my phone, the same number appeared. It was his 19 half-siblings. (That number is now 22.) Pearson said her oldest sibling is 50 and her youngest is 35.

Pearson said she received a call from one of her sisters a week later.

“She said, ‘What you’re about to hear may be very shocking,'” Pearson recalled. “Nothing prepared me for the truth.”

Pearson said that while talking with her sister, she learned that her half-siblings’ mothers went to the same fertility clinic in New Haven and were seen by Dr. Barton Caldwell. She said she then called her mother.

“That was the most difficult conversation of my life,” Pearson said.

The now 36-year-old and her mother filed a lawsuit alleging that Caldwell told her the sperm came from a Yale medical student who had very few offspring.

“For her to be seen by a doctor and undergo such a vulnerable and intimate procedure, and then left without knowing what actually happened to her body,” Pearson said. “Her mother never agreed to have a doctor’s child.”

Angela Matti, a professor of business and medicine at Quinnipiac University, called the incident “egregious” and “unethical.” He also said there is no federal or Connecticut law against it.

“Brothers may marry brothers, brothers may have children,” Matti said. “It’s time to do something about this.”

Mr Pearson said the consequences of fertility fraud have proven traumatic. She said she recently learned that two of her half-brothers unknowingly dated and had an intimate relationship during her high school years.

“My brothers had no idea,” Pearson said. “They didn’t agree with the relationship with the brothers.”

Pearson said she went to Caldwell’s home with a million questions and that Caldwell admitted to using his own sperm.

“He also asked how many grandchildren he had, how he was doing in school, and where he went to college,” Pearson said.

Caldwell stopped practicing in 2004 and is now in his mid-80s, according to the lawsuit.

Nexstar’s WTNH reached out to Caldwell for a response, but Caldwell declined to comment.