In defense of couple suing a sperm bank

By Dahleen Glanton

Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

Three years ago, Jennifer Cramblett and her partner, Amanda Zinkon, went shopping for sperm.

Not just any sperm would do. They decided that the sperm used to artificially inseminate Cramblett with their first child would have to come from a man with genetic traits similar to theirs. In other words, he had to be white.

The couple pored through the profiles of men who had donated semen to an Illinois-based sperm bank, looking for just the right vial to take home with them to rural Uniontown, Ohio. After a week, they narrowed their choices to three and, finally, made their decision.

They would take two vials of sperm from Donor No. 380.

Sold!

Nine months after the insemination, Cramblett gave birth to a healthy girl. But there was a big surprise in the delivery room. This child was biracial, part African-American.

Oops. Someone at the sperm store apparently had placed the wrong vial in the shopping bag. Instead of Donor No. 380, she’d gotten Donor No. 330.

Unbeknownst to Cramblett and Zinkon, Cramblett had inserted into her body the sperm of a black man. According to the lawsuit she filed in Cook County Circuit Court against the Midwest Sperm Bank, that has caused her pain, suffering, emotional distress and a host of other problems. She wants the sperm bank to pay her more than $50,000.

In my opinion, she deserves every penny.

Think about how you would have felt in that delivery room, anxiously anticipating the arrival of a little bundle of joy that looks like you. But then she comes out looking like someone else.

In an instant, Cramblett says in the lawsuit, her excitement and anticipation of her pregnancy was replaced with anger, disappointment and fear.

Since filing the lawsuit, the couple has received quite a bit of criticism for what some have called a racist attitude. I don’t see the racism there.

Cramblett and Zinkon never said they wanted to be another Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, raising a rainbow coalition of kids with various racial and ethnic backgrounds. They wanted to raise a white child.

And since they live in America, they had the right to make that choice. They also have made it clear that despite the mix-up, they love their “beautiful, obviously mix-race baby girl” Payton, who is now 2 years old.

But raising a black child has been tough, especially for a mother who admits she was raised in an all-white environment around people who had stereotypical attitudes.

Certainly, the couple must have given some thought to the adversity little Payton would encounter as the daughter of lesbians. They apparently were prepared to deal with that head-on.

Racism is addressed the same way as homophobia. You have to stand up to it. And if it gets too tough in Uniontown, an extra $50,000 in the bank makes it much easier for the family to start a new life somewhere else.

Dahleen Glanton is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.