The crime of fraudulent assisted reproduction would be created under a bill moving in the Kentucky General Assembly. The measure, sponsored by GOP Richmond Representative Deanna Frazier Gordon easily passed the Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
The legislation is aimed at cases where doctors have used their own sperm to inseminate unsuspecting female patients. Frazier Gordon testified there is not one universal reason for such behavior.
“Some have said they did so to help desperate parents. Some have offered that it was an attempt to make restitution for providing past abortions. Some needed the money, or some cited as a reason that their DNA is superior to others and a desire to pass on their genetic material,” said Frazier Gordon.
Jody Madeira is a professor of law at Indiana University. Madeira says two doctors in Kentucky have been cited for fertility fraud deception and 50 nationally. She said the bill creates a civil and criminal cause of action for fertility fraud.
“It would expand the statute of limitations, which I believe is one year in Kentucky. So, it would provide a five-year statute of limitations, provide an option for liquidated damages, allow the women who are former patients as well as their children and partners to sue and basically create a low-level felony, felony D for fertility fraud."
The bill now moves to the full House.
