Dr Ben Ramaley accused of using his own sperm in IVF treatment on patient

November 13, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: News

A fertility doctor, Dr Ben Ramaley, of Connecticut, is accused of using his own sperm to impregnate a woman who then birthed twins.

Dr Ramaley, 62, is alleged to have swapped a patients husbands sperm with his own during an IVF procedure.

Ramaley has denied the allegations.

In a 2005 lawsuit filed by an unidentified couple the doctor was found to have given the woman the wrong sperm and was fined $10,000.

At that time he was never asked to give a DNA sample and the sperm was not established to have been his own. The case was quickly settled and Ramaley kept his license.

A probe by Connecticut’s Attorney General into the relativity minor fine he received has catapulted the disturbing allegations into the US national spotlight.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said: “My office is seeking information from the Department of Public Health concerning deeply disturbing allegations against Dr Ramaley and DPH’s involvement in this case,”

Court records show that the couple went to Ramaley for help conceiving in 2002.
Ramaley performed several artificial inseminations on the woman - supposedly using her husband’s sperm. She then became pregnant with twin girls.

“After their birth, [the couple] were surprised at the very fair complexion of the twins, because [the husband] is African-American and [the wife] is Caucasian,” court records state.

“In March 2004, DNA testing performed at the suggestion of the twins’ pediatrician showed that [the wife] was the mother but that [the husband] was not the biological father.”

The couple sued Ramaley in 2005 claiming that the doctor ‘intentionally inserted his own sperm into’ the wife, causing her to become pregnant.

The suit was quickly settled out of court with a gag order imposed.

Because those involved are banned from discussing this case, it is not clear what led to the couple alleging that the doctor had used his own sperm.

However, when the state Public Health Department learned of the case, it investigated Ramaley, and found he had ‘inseminated the female patient with the wrong man’s sperm,’ according to department records.

The Health Department did not determine whether Ramaley had used his own sperm because ‘the patient . . . refused to cooperate with the investigation,’ said department spokesman Bill Gerrish.

After Ramaley did not contest the claim that someone other than the husband’s sperm was accidentally used, he agreed in 2008 to pay a $10,000 fine and to refrain from performing artificial inseminations.

Ramaley earlier this year willingly forfeited his New York medical license because of the same case.