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A Canadian couple is suing a Georgia sperm bank, saying that the donor the company provided for them turned out to be a schizophrenic who has a criminal record and whose photo was doctored to make him look more attractive.
Angela Collins and Margaret Elizabeth Hanson of Port Hope, Ontario, decided in 2006 to start a family by using donor sperm, according to a suit filed this week in Fulton County Superior Court. They chose to use the services of Xytex Corp., which is based in Augusta and has offices in Atlanta. The couple understood that the company thoroughly vetted potential sperm donors, screening them for their educational backgrounds and health history, among other things, and only selected the top prospects.
Xytex had no comment on the suit as of Thursday morning after being contacted Wednesday morning.
Collins and Hanson, according to the suit, were told that their then-anonymous donor had an IQ of 160, a bachelor of science degree in neuroscience and a master’s degree in artificial intelligence, and that he was working on his PhD in neuroscience engineering. He also was described as an eloquent speaker, mature beyond his years, and healthy.
Collins, via intra-uterine insemination, gave birth to a son on July 19, 2007.
Collins and Hanson found out in June 2014 their donor was James Christian Aggeles. According to the suit, they learned that as a result of a confidentiality breach by Xytex in which emails were sent to recipient families that inadvertently identified Aggeles as the donor.
The couple and other families who had used him as a donor quickly discovered through their own research that he is, according to the suit, schizophrenic, had dropped out of college and had been arrested for burglary, and that his pictures had been doctored to remove a large mole from his cheek.
Aggeles was charged with one count of burglary in 2005 and his case was discharged in May 2014 under terms of the First Offender Act, said Kimberly Isaza, spokeswoman for the Cobb County District Attorney’s office. The Superior Court Clerk’s office said he served eight months in jail, with the rest of his 10-year sentence on probation, ending in May 2014.
In the suit, Collins and Hanson said they have suffered emotional and financial damages and they now will have to spend more money to evaluate and care for their son to make certain that he receives any medical treatment and care he may require in the future.
“Had plaintiffs known the true facts,” according to the suit, “plaintiffs would not have purchased sperm from defendants, and plaintiffs have been harmed as a result of defendants’ deceit and fraud.”
Nancy Hersh, a lawyer for the couple, said she is representing about 15 mothers in total who used Aggeles as a donor. Together they have more than 20 children by him, she said, and they are all concerned about the future health and care of their children because of Aggeles’ medical history. Only Collins and Hanson have filed suit so far, she added.
Hersh said she is not familiar with any similar type of case.
She said parents seeking a child through sperm donation are “people at their most vulnerable. They want to have a baby. They are easily subject to manipulation and misrepresentation.”
She said Collins and Hanson love their son but want to make sure he can be properly cared for if he is diagnosed as having schizophrenia.
“Nobody,” she said, “should take this to mean (the mothers) don’t love their children.”
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