A former Harvard Medical School professor is accused of inseminating a woman with his own sperm decades ago and misleading her about the donor, according to a new lawsuit.
In what plaintiff Sarah Depoian called “an extreme violation,” Dr. Merle Berger, an OBGYN professor at Harvard and founder of Boston IVF, one of the nation’s largest fertility clinics, is accused of inseminating her with his own sperm, leading to the birth of Depoian’s child, Carolyn Bester, in 1981.
The lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday states that Depoian and her husband went to see Berger for help conceiving a child in 1980 and that he promised, according to the complaint, “to perform an insemination using the sperm of a medical resident who resembled her husband, who did not know her, and whom she did not know. With that understanding, Ms. Depoian consented to the insemination.”
The alleged action wasn’t uncovered until Bester used a home DNA test earlier this year and found that Dr. Berger was her biological father, according to the complaint.
“This is an extreme violation. I am still struggling to process it. I trusted Dr. Berger fully. We thought he would act responsibly and ethically,” Depoian said “I will never fully recover from his violation of me.”
Bester, now 42 years old, said that “To say I experienced shock when I figured this out would be an extreme understatement. It feels like reality has shifted. I just want to say how proud I am of my mom for speaking out, and I’m honored to stand by her side.”
Berger’s attorney, Ian Pinta, a partner at the firm Todd and Weld LLP, told the Herald that the allegations against his client “have no legal or factual merit and will be disproven in court.”
“Dr. Merle Berger was a pioneer in the medical fertility field who in 50 years of practice helped thousands of families fulfill their dreams of having a child. He is widely known for his sensitivity to the emotional anguish of the women who came to him for help conceiving,” Pinta’s emailed statement reads.
“The allegations concern events from over 40 years ago, in the early days of artificial insemination. At a time before sperm banks and IVF, it was dramatically different from modern-day fertility treatment,” Pinta added. “The allegations, which have changed repeatedly in the six months since the plaintiff’s attorney first contacted Dr. Berger, have no legal or factual merit, and will be disproven in court.”
