Indiana women tell their story of charged fertility doctor
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - A mother and daughter at the center of a case in which a retired Indianapolis fertility doctor is accused of using his own sperm instead of donated sperm are still dealing with the emotional aftermath of paternity tests that showed a 99.9 percent probability that the doctor was the father.
Dr. Donald Cline, 77, pleaded not guilty in September to two felony obstruction of justice charges for misleading authorities who were investigating complaints from two of the now-adult children against him, WTHI-TV (http://bit.ly/2fXJEZ2 ) reported.
Deborah Pierce sought out a fertility doctor in Indianapolis, and became pregnant with her daughter, Jacoba Ballard, through artificial insemination.
Two years ago Ballard began to search for possible siblings.
"I decided that I wanted to take a DNA test, I had been told that I was from donor sperm," Ballard said.
Ballard said the sperm was supposed to come from a medical resident. However Ballard said she found it strange when she discovered that she had seven siblings because a residency lasts only three to four years.
Ballard and some of her siblings began to investigate through ancestry and tests and narrowed the search down to two answers.
"We had narrowed it down to where we thought it was one of his family members or him," said Ballard, in regards to her mother's fertility doctor, "We weren't for sure."
After more testing, results proved that the sperm used to conceive Ballard was a 99.9% match to the 77-year-old fertility doctor.
Pierce said she would have declined Cline's sperm if he had asked her, and feels like she was deceived and lied to.
Ballard said it will be hard to forgive Cline and said this situation has hurt her emotionally.
"One day I hope to forgive him, but until he can actually be truthful and him and his family can actually come to terms with this and admit it, then it's going to be hard for me to heal," she said.
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Information from: WTHI-TV, http://www.wthitv.com/