The Supreme Court of the Province of Ontario in Canada has confirmed an agreement to compensate more than 13.3 million Canadian dollars (10.7 million US dollars) for former patients and children of a Canadian doctor who used his semen during artificial insemination, according to CBC.
This is Norman Barwin, a doctor of reproductive medicine, who used his semen and the semen of the wrong donors to fertilize his patients, so dozens of children born after this procedure still do not know who their biological parents are. In 2016, a class action lawsuit was filed against Darwin, involving 226 people, about half of whom were children of his patients. According to a study conducted in the investigation, the biological father of 17 of these children is Barwin himself. The lawsuit considers claims for the period from 1973 to 2012. Barwin is now 82 years old.
According to media reports, this settlement is the first in the world.
“Although I know of several doctors in the world who have done something similar to what Barwin did, I don’t know of any other class action lawsuit or settlement of this kind anywhere else in the world,” said Peter Cronin, a lawyer who represents the family.
According to the TV channel, the agreement on the collective lawsuit states that the agreement reached as a result of negotiations is not a recognition of offenses by Barwin, who “denied and continues to deny all the claims of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit.” The court must approve the payment of compensation, the hearing in this case will take place in November.
The funds received as a result of the settlement will have to be distributed among the plaintiffs in the categories of “damages”. More than $ 60,000 will be spent on creating a DNA database of Barwin’s patients, sperm donors and children conceived by a doctor, which will help newborns find their biological parents and other relatives.