A lot of compensation for artificial insemination with wrong sperm

OLG Hamm: Mother was dependent on psychotherapy
If an artificial insemination with "wrong" sperm made, the mother may be entitled to pain compensation for the associated physical and psychological stress. This was decided by the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Hamm in a ruling announced on Wednesday, 4 April 2018, which awarded a fine to a lesbian mother in the amount of 7,500 euros (Ref .: 3 U 66/16).

The woman living in a same-sex civil partnership had been artificially fertilized in 2006 with the help of donor sperm from an unknown donor. As a result of the so-called heterological insemination, she became the mother of a girl in January 2007. The partner also accepted the child jointly.

The couple still wanted a second child. The donor sperm intended for artificial insemination should come from the same man who was the producer of the first child. The mother wanted her children to be "full siblings".

When the woman finally gave birth to a boy in January 2009, she later wondered why her two children had different blood types.

In August 2011 she learned that the children did not come from the same sperm donor.

The mother, who in the meantime had parted company with her partner, demanded compensation and compensation from the physicians who had performed the artificial insemination. That her children are not full siblings, they have triggered a physical-psychological stress situation with exhaustion, depressive episodes and guilt feelings towards the children with her. A long-term psychotherapeutic treatment was therefore necessary.

The doctors attributed the psychological problems to the separation from the partner.

Both the district court of Münster and the OLG awarded the woman because of the health costs suffered a fine in the amount of 7,500 euros. The physicians would have to cling to the physical and psychological effects that have occurred as a result of the "wrong" donor sperm, the OLG in its judgment of 19 February 2018.

However, the plaintiff could not claim the coveted information about sperm donor data such as name, date of birth or place of residence due to the health problems suffered. The relevant data are not "medical records" in which the claimant would be entitled to access.

However, the children complaining in the process can demand information from the reproductive health professionals about the identity of their genetic father, according to the Higher Regional Court with reference to a decision of the Federal Court of Justice of 28 January 2015 (Ref .: XII ZR 201/13, JurAgentur-Meldung vom Urteilstag).

This information could covet parents for their child, "if they wanted to enlighten the child at a later date on the identity of the producer," decided the Higher Regional Court. fle