A woman who claims her gynaecologist is her own biological father says she ‘sobbed’ when she got the news.
Morgan Hellquist, 36, had been a patient of Dr Morris Wortman in New York, where she underwent numerous examinations and even fitted her with an IUD.
Hellquist visited the doctor after her mother Jo Ann Levy had also been a patient. Levy visited Dr Wortman in 1985 to help get pregnant after her husband Gary was left paraplegic by a drunk driver.
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Levy and her husband were told she was being inseminated with sperm from an anonymous medical student.
However, in 2016 Hellquist got an Ancestry DNA test where it was revealed she had numerous half-siblings also on the platform - amongst them a 37-year-old called David Berry.
The pair both found more half-siblings popping up on the site.
Speaking to Good Morning America, Hellquist said: “Then there was five of us. And we were all the same age.
“And six, and then seven. And it started to feel like, well if there's seven there might be 20. And if there's 20, there might be 100. And I started to feel terrified.”
Berry and Hellquist eventually determined their mothers had both conceived after visiting Dr Wortman for artificial insemination and were able to track down one of the doctor’s daughters to ask her to do a test.
The test showed that Hellquist and Berry's DNA matched Wortman's.
She said: “When we found out, there wasn't any need to tell [my mother]. I was screaming and sobbing at the top of my lungs.”
Berry’s mum Karen told the news outlet she was also told her donation had come from an anonymous medical student.
"He had my permission to use a donor, specifically a medical student," she said.
"He did not have my permission to use his own sperm for a donation."
Hellquist has lodged a lawsuit against Dr Wortman, alleging he committed medical malpractice for treating her as a patient when he likely knew he was her biological father.
Wortman has denied the charges.
Only a handful of states in the US penalised ‘fertility fraud’ - New York is not one of them, meaning Hellquist is the only one of her half-siblings who is able to file a suit, due to the fact she was treated as a patient by the doctor.
She explained: "I do not have a fertility fraud case.
"I have a case because he touched my body without my consent."
Dr Wortman is seeking to have the case dismissed.
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Topics: US News
Claire Reid