Sperm In The News

Sperm in the News - file that under "Post Titles I Never Thought I'd Write." But there's been a spate (well, okay, a couple) of sperm-related stories lately.

The first one's got everything - sexism, racism, intolerance - a veritable smorgasbord of victimism.

White woman sues sperm bank after she mistakenly gets black donor’s sperm

An Ohio mom and her same-sex partner are suing a Chicago-area fertility clinic for sending sperm from a black donor instead of the white donor’s sperm that she ordered.

Thirty-six-year-old Jennifer Cramblett of Uniontown, Ohio, said that, as a lesbian, she knows what discrimination feels like. She doesn’t want her mixed-race daughter, Payton, to feel the same pain because of the color of her skin.

According to court documents, the 2-year-old girl is already facing racial prejudice in Uniontown, a community of 3,300 people — 97 percent of whom are white.

Of course she is. All white people are prejudiced against mixed-race folks. That's why obama didn't get re-elected ... oh, wait...

The lawsuit was filed Monday against Midwest Sperm Bank for wrongful birth and breach of warranty, citing emotional and economic damage.

After poring over pages of donor histories from Midwest Sperm Bank three years ago, Cramblett and her partner, 29-year-old Amanda Zinkon, selected donor No. 380, who was white. Cramblett used the sperm to get pregnant and, months later, the two decided to reserve more sperm from that donor so Zinkon could one day have a child related to the one Cramblett was carrying.

Isn't that sweet. Two lesbians want to get pregnant by the same sperm donor so their offspring can be true siblings. What could go wrong?

During that process, the couple learned the truth: An employee at the fertility clinic allegedly misread a handwritten order — and Cramblett had been inseminated by donor No. 330, who was black.

“Jennifer was crying, confused and upset,” according to the court papers. “All of the thought, care and planning that she and Amanda had undertaken to control their baby’s parentage had been rendered meaningless. In an instant, Jennifer’s excitement and anticipation of her pregnancy was replaced with anger, disappointment and fear.”

"anger, disappointment and fear”? Sounds like Jennifer is a racist.

Cramlett’s attorney, Thomas Intili, told NBC News his client “did not encounter any African-American people until she entered college. Not all her friends and family members are racially sensitive.”

The couple reportedly moved from Akron, Ohio, to Uniontown to be near better schools and Cramblett’s family. Now therapists are advising them to move to a more racially diverse community, the lawsuit stated.

One issue cited in the lawsuit is hair care.

“Getting a young daughter’s hair cut is not particularly stressful for most mothers, but to Jennifer it is not a routine matter, because Payton has hair typical of an African American girl,” it said. “To get a decent cut, Jennifer must travel to a black neighborhood, far from where she lives, where she is obviously different in appearance, and not overtly welcome.”

Oops. Now it sounds like the people in the black neighborhood are racist.

I don't have a problem with a lawsuit in this case based on negligence, and even emotional distress. After all, the women carefully and deliberately selected one particular donor to be the biological father of their children. Getting impregnated by a different donor has got to be tremendously traumatic. But to wrap the whole mess up in a cloak of racism is merely perpetuating the already turbulent and divisive state of racial relations in this country.

I don't know what it's like in Ohio, but here's a couple of stories from small towns in Texas. If one believes the mainstream media, we're nothing but a bunch of prejudiced redneck hicks with little or no tolerance for anyone different from ourselves. Consider the following and judge for yourself.

Back in August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina was ravaging New Orleans, around 200 members of a black church fled the floodwaters together, with no idea of where they were going. They ended up in the small Texas town of Marble Falls.

The heart of the Lone Star State, with its rolling hills, folk music festivals and abundant wildlife, is 550 miles and countless cultures removed from the historically black Big Easy. According to the latest census, 83 percent of Marble Falls’ 6,200 residents are white and just under 4 percent are African-American.

The entire county seems to have embraced the Smoking for Jesus congregation (the unique name is intended to show that the group is “red hot for the Lord”)...

Several members also started businesses in Burnet County or work full-time at the Real New Orleans Style Restaurant, which the church opened in Marble Falls.

Church member Racheal Frazier mixes Christianity and choreography at her Yet Praise Dance Company, where Krystle Fullmer’s 7-year-old is a student.

“I honestly think my daughter would trade me for them,” Fullmer says following a recent class. “They’re all very kind, warm and welcoming. Isn’t that the way God wants it? After everything everyone goes through nowadays with all the hate, it’s really great to have a place where it’s just God’s children learning to dance.”

"...God's children learning to dance."

I'm not an overly religious man, or much of a softy, but to me that's a beautiful sentiment. Wouldn't it be a much better world if more of us felt that way?

A little closer to home, we're friends with a wonderful couple who live a few miles away from us in beautiful downtown Bergheim TX. The husband is a MD and his wife is a RN. They have three biological children. They spend one month each year on a medical mission trip to underdeveloped countries. The wife is one of those people who, under different circumstances, would be the crazy old cat lady with dozens of felines. But instead of cats, she adopts disadvantaged third world kids.

Once their biological kids got to be high school age, she realized she missed the toddler/little kid experience. So she talked her hubby into adopting two kids - a brother and a sister with special needs - from Guatemala. The kids were welcomed into our little community just as if they were newborns. A few years later the parents adopted another brother and sister duo, this time from Nigeria. Again, the community welcomed them with open arms.

That was several years ago and as far as I know there have been no instances of racism, prejudice, or discrimination. As for Jennifer's worries about getting her mixed-race daughter's hair cut, that's not a problem here. The local women, my wife included, coo over how naturally curly the Nigerian girl's hair is. The local hair stylists fight over which one gets to cut her hair.

It just goes to show how advanced rural Texas is compared to the rest of the nation.

On the lighter side of sperm-related news, we have the following story of sperm hijacking. Pay close attention. It gets complicated.

Sulphur resident wins case against ex-girlfriend who stole his sperm

... a jury ruled in favor of a former Sulphur resident who sued his ex-girlfriend for using his sperm to have a baby — without his consent.

Layne Hardin sued his former girlfriend, Tobie Devall, in a Houston civil court, saying she illegally took his sperm out a sperm bank.

Hardin claimed that he and Katherine LeBlanc, with whom Hardin has a son, signed a contract in 2002 with Texas Andrology Services in Houston that said only LeBlanc would have access to his sperm.

After Hardin and LeBlanc broke up, he began dating Devall. He claimed that Devall went to the bank by herself and without his permission, picked up the sperm and used it to get pregnant. Devall claims she had Hardin's permission.

So basically it's a case about an unauthorized withdrawal. Still, I suppose that's preferable to an unauthorized deposit. (snerk...)

The jury ruled that the Texas Andrology Services failed to comply with the agreement and ordered the facility to pay Hardin and LeBlanc $250,000 each.

Devall must also pay Hardin $125,000...

So this guy's getting a total of $375,000 for a sample of his sperm.

Where do I sign up...?