Donald Cline thinks he did the right thing and he helped those women to have the children they have always wanted.
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Dr. Donald Cline, 77, pleaded not guilty Monday to two felony obstruction of justice charges for misleading authorities who were investigating complaints from two of the now-adult children against him.
In a letter to the Indiana Attorney General’s Office at the beginning of the investigation, Cline denied ever having used his own sperm. The revelation came after a woman took a DNA test in 2014, and found that she was related to eight other users of the same service.
Last May, she spoke with a group of siblings who suspected Cline was their father. He first explained to the siblings that he used his own sperm depending on the Rh factor in the mother’s blood, but when challenged by two sisters who are physicians, he changed his explanation and said he used his own sperm whenever he didn’t have a donor sample available. He said he had a policy not to use a donor for more than three successful pregnancies. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine did not have any such guidelines then, spokesman Sean Tipton said. But in 2015, it was discovered that 47 siblings were fathered by a single in man over two decades, and that the medical community guidelines in the United States failed to regulate the number of offspring stemming from his sperm samples.
Cline said he may have donated his own sperm to up to 50 patients. When they asked to see their mothers’ records, he said that all information about their treatment had been shredded. Further DNA testing revealed that all of those tested were siblings, court documents reported by NBC reveal. After that time had passed, he was able to dispose of them.
Prosecutors say he may have used his sperm to inseminate patients 50 times.
Dr. Cline retired from his medical practice in 2009.
Cline had told the mothers of the now-grown children that he was using a doctor in training for the samples.
Cline said he doesn’t know when he stopped using his own sperm to artificially inseminate women. Cline appeared in Marion Superior Court on Monday and was released on the condition that he return on October 17 to court.
Ethics aside, the possible legal ramifications are unclear.
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He didn’t consider himself to be fathering children, but helping families unable to conceive, Cline said in an interview with Fox. They believe the state should provide donor children need more rights, but the nationwide stance on the issue does not provide a clear path for change.
