A white woman is suing Midwest Sperm Bank LLC in Downers Grove, Illinois, for sending her and her same-sex partner sperm from an African-American donor.
They say the mistake has created a lot of difficulties for them as they are now raising a mixed-race 2-year-old daughter in an all-white community.
The lawsuit was filed by Jennifer Cramblett of Uniontown Ohio in Cook County Circuit Court last Monday. Cramblett says she and her partner Amanda Zinkon picked donor No. 380, a white donor who provided sperm for their first child, but instead received a vial from donor No. 330, who is black. Cramblett says that she was already pregnant with the child from the black donor when she discovered the snafu.
Cramblett says raising their 2-year-old daughter Payton has been stressful and that she continues to “live each day with fears, anxieties and uncertainty about her future and Payton’s future.”
While the lawsuit says they have bonded and love their mixed-raced child, raising her in a community that lacks diversity has caused emotional stress. Cramblett says she grew up in an “all white and unconsciously insensitive family” and doesn’t want their daughter to feel stigmatized. She said that she dreads the day when she’ll have to send Payton to an all-white school and that her therapist recommended she relocate to a more diverse neighborhood with good schools.
The lawsuit claims the sperm bank kept handwritten records instead of electronic ones, which allowed the donor numbers to be misread. After Cramblett learned of the mix-up, the sperm bank sent her an apology letter and a check refunding the six sperm vials she received.