Colorado fertility doctor who used his own sperm to impregnate woman twice sued by family
GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO: In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, October 29, a Colorado fertility doctor was accused of secretly using his own sperm to impregnate a woman twice, bearing her two daughters without consent.
According to the lawsuit, filed in Mesa County District Court, and obtained by KUSA-TV, Dr Paul Jones promised Cheryl Emmons he would use an anonymous donor for her artificial inseminations in 1980 and 1985, but at the end impregnated her with his own sperm each time. Jones is now being sued for negligence, fraud and other causes of action as the family sought damages in a civil trial.
According to plaintiffs' attorney Patrick Fitz-Gerald, Emmon's daughters, Maia and Tahnee, found out that Jones had fathered them when they came across strangers using Ancestry.com and 23andme.com that they shared DNA with, including the cousins of Jones. They found at least five half-siblings they previously had no knowledge about.
Until New Year's Eve 2018, the sisters didn’t know their parents had gone through artificial insemination to conceive them. They discovered the truth when Maia was messaged by a stranger on Ancestry.com, who said, “It looks like we’re close matches, so I’m assuming we’re half-siblings."
After confronting their mother, they found out that her husband, John Emmons, had gone through testicular cancer, making it difficult to conceive, which made her seek Jones' help in the past. The doctor who had also helped deliver the daughters had kept in touch with Cheryl's family even after years had passed and they had moved to California.
“[Jones] needs to own up to what he did,” Maia told KUSA-TV. “I would like to ask him, ‘Why? Why did you do this?’"
When the outlet approached the accused, asking him whether he had used his own sperm to impregnate his client twice, he avoided giving any definitive answer, calling the question “impertinent.” “I don’t deny it. I don’t admit it,” he said.
Jones' name and photo have been removed from the list of doctors on the website of Women’s Health Care of Western Colorado, a center he had co-founded.