In The News

I was reading our local newspaper today. Some days there's not much of note in the paper, other days story after story just leaves me shaking my head. Today was one of those days.

There were several stories that jumped out at me. What made these three so noteworthy is that they were all on the same page. After I finished reading them all I felt like taking a shower. Read on and you'll see why.

Sperm bank switch

The University of Utah has put together a panel of doctors and medical ethicists to find out how a convicted felon working at a fertility clinic two decades ago replaced a patient's sperm with his own and fathered a woman who is now 21.

The university has confirmed that Thomas Lippert, an employee of the private clinic that closed in 1998, is the biological father of the woman who now lives in San Antonio with her family. They don't know why or how his sperm samples got switched with the father's ... complicating matters is the fact that most of the records from the lab are gone and Lippert and the former clinic director have died.

The woman, Annie Branum, is now 21, and says the discovery has forced her to rethink who she is. Her family stumbled upon the discovery while using widely available DNA tests to trace their family roots online. The results showed Annie Branum's DNA didn't match her father's. The website led them to a second cousin who had also used the DNA testing. They tracked her down, and she turned out to be Lippert's cousin. She told the Branums that Lippert was a sperm donor who lived in Salt Lake City. A DNA test of Lippert's 99-year-old mother confirmed that she was the daughter's biological grandmother.

No one knows what might have motivated Lippert, who in 1975 took a plea bargain on kidnapping and other charges for subjecting a Purdue University female student to electroshock behavioral modification techniques in a so-called "love experiment."

The university hopes the in-depth investigation brings answers...

Can you imagine that poor families shock when they learned who the real father was? To make matters worse, there may be others in the same situation. The investigation has revealed that around 1000 people may have visited the clinic while Lippert worked there. So far 15 have called a special hotline the university set up to field inquiries from former patients. No word so far on whether or not Lippert fathered anyone else.

What a mess. But at least he had the 'decency' to screw up people's lives remotely. The next two were more FTF about it.

Court considers what child porn viewer owes victim

Supreme Court justices expressed compassion for a woman raped as a child as they struggled with how much money should be paid to her by one man convicted of possessing pornographic images of the abuse that have spread among thousands of online viewers.

The details of the case are confusing, but as near as I can figure out the defendant posted on the Internet pictures of an 8 year old child being raped by her uncle. The images were subsequently viewed by "thousands" of online perverts.

The law gives victims of child porn and certain other sexual crimes the right to collect restitution from people convicted of the crimes. The defendant was convicted of child pornography charges and found liable for $3.4 million to compensate the victim. His lawyers are arguing that the people who viewed the pictures should be found equally liable, and the judgment should be split among all those involved.

That raises an intriguing question. The victim deserves compensation. The defendant doesn't have the resources to pay $3.4M. The people who viewed the images, in addition to being sickos who deserve every punishment we can heap on them, certainly broke the law. They also created a demand for kiddie porn. Shouldn't they also be held responsible?

Of course, there's a host of practical issues to address. How do you identify everyone who saw the pictures? How can you collect from them? Some will undoubtedly be outside the U.S. jurisdiction. What is to be done about them?

Lots to think about...

Here's the final story.

Teenager accused of strangling man in sex act

A 16-year-old girl who police say strangled a man during an apparent sex act has been charged as an adult with second-degree murder, authorities said Wednesday.

Jason Ash, 43, was found dead Saturday evening in a Glendale apartment. According to court records, he was discovered lying on his back on a bed with an electrical cord around his neck and cuts to his face, arms and body.

The girl's mother told police she left her daughter alone in their apartment with Ash, whom she described as a boyfriend of the teenager.

WTF?!? What parent in their right mind allows their 16-year-old daughter to have a 43-year-old boyfriend? The mother should be in the cell next to her daughter.

The mother told police her daughter told her the couple was "playing sex games and he was cut on the arms and choked."

The girl told her mother they often used strangulation and cutting as part of their sexual activity and that "Jason did not say the 'safety word,' " police wrote in court papers.

Well, Jason is a perv, so he got what was coming to him. But blaming him because he didn't use the safety word is a bit much.

The girl said that "after she strangled Jason with an electrical cord, she began cutting him with a razor blade," according to police. "The first cut was an attempt to get a response from Jason since he appeared to have passed out ... She continued to cut on Jason in order to alleviate her stress from the situation."

Yeah, that's a good way to wake someone up - cut 'em with a razor. And when you get all stressed out because they don't wake up, cut 'em some more.

What a bunch of sick freaks...