Funny as White Mom Mistakenly Impregnated With Black Man's Sperm Loses Court Battle

Jennifer Cramblett

NBC News Screenshot

Saying it lacked legal merit, an Illinois judge last week dismissed a white mother's lawsuit against a sperm bank after she was accidentally impregnated with the semen of an African American man, according to the Washington Post.

The mother, Jennifer Cramblett, of Uniontown, Ohio, filed a lawsuit in 2014 against Midwest Sperm Bank after she was artificially inseminated with semen from the wrong donor and gave birth to a mixed-race daughter, the report says. Arguing wrongful birth and emotional suffering, she sought $50,000 in damages.

The sperm bank issued an apology and refunded part of the cost to Cramblett and her partner Amanda Zinkon. But the suit claimed that "the mistake caused Cramblett and her family stress, pain, suffering and medical expenses," the report says. Further, the suit suggested that Cramblett, who lives in predominantly white community, feared that her daughter, Payton, now 3, would grow up feeling like an “outcast,” the report notes.

But DuPage County judge Ronald Sutter on Thursday threw out the lawsuit, agreeing with lawyers for the sperm bank. The lawyers said that "wrongful birth suits" usually apply in instances where a child is born with a birth defect and that doctors should have warned parents, but in this case the child was healthy, reports the Post.